West Cobar Metals (ASX:WC1) progresses scandium work at Salazar
West Cobar Metals is progressing an accelerated scandium focused program at its Salazar Critical Minerals Project in Western Australia, with approvals underway for targeted drilling of higher grade scandium zones within the Newmont deposit.
Aircore drilling is targeted to commence in Q4 2026, while metallurgical testwork and flowsheet development are progressing in parallel.
Highlights
Newmont hosts an Inferred Resource of 15Mt at 153ppm Sc₂O₃ within the saprolite clay zone.
Closer spaced aircore drilling at a nominal 100m by 50m pattern is planned around areas of higher grade scandium intersections.
Recent bioleaching screening testwork achieved scandium extraction of up to 39% under atmospheric conditions.
Current metallurgical programs are focused on processing options including heap leaching and production of mixed rare earth and scandium concentrate.
Planned activities include further bioleaching testwork, an integrated flowsheet demonstration and staged development studies.
The Salazar Project lies approximately 120km north east of Esperance and hosts scandium, rare earth elements, titanium and gallium.
West Cobar recently completed a detailed review of the Salazar scandium mineralisation, demonstrating its spatial association with the weathered magnetic amphibolite horizon, which also influences the distribution of heavy rare earth elements and titanium dioxide.
The existing Newmont estimate is based on 500m by 100m aircore drill spacing that was primarily designed to establish a large rare earth element and TiO₂ resource.
Previously reported intersections include SAC358, which returned 13m at 318ppm Sc₂O₃ from 9m, including 3m at 649ppm Sc₂O₃ from 10m, and SAC391, which returned 11m at 282ppm Sc₂O₃ from 6m, including 4m at 350ppm Sc₂O₃ from 9m.
The announcement states that these intersections indicate potential for discrete zones of higher grade scandium mineralisation.
West Cobar Managing Director Matt Szwedzicki said:
“We are excited to be rapidly progressing towards Salazar’s first drill program specifically targeting scandium. The program will test higher-grade zones within the Newmont deposit and provide data to support a potential Mineral Resource update.”
Earlier metallurgical testwork achieved scandium recoveries of up to 81% using atmospheric pressure acid leaching.
West Cobar states that the preliminary results support continued evaluation of atmospheric pressure processing routes, while further testwork and development studies are required to assess flowsheet performance, recoveries, costs and project economics.
Salazar also hosts Total Indicated and Inferred Resources of 230Mt at 1,178ppm TREO, including 44Mt at 1,239ppm TREO in the Indicated category using a 600ppm TREO cut off, while Inferred Resources include 42Mt at 5.2% TiO₂, 263Mt at 35ppm Ga₂O₃ and 4Mt at 29.7% Al₂O₃.
International attention on scandium is increasing as tightening Chinese export controls reinforce the strategic importance of secure Western scandium supply chains required for defence, aerospace, advanced aluminium alloys, solid oxide fuel cells and semiconductor technologies.
The announcement also refers to a US$400m conditional loan commitment to another ASX listed company’s NSW scandium project by the US Government’s Department of War.
West Cobar’s stated next steps are to progress approvals for the planned aircore drilling program, advance metallurgical testwork including scandium recovery and mixed rare earth carbonate potential, undertake further bioleaching testwork, progress an integrated flowsheet demonstration and staged development studies, and continue engagement on potential US funding and offtake pathways.