Cobra Resources (LSE:COBR) has conducted initial testing to support a forthcoming Scoping Study at the Wudinna Rare Earth Project in South Australia, confirming the potential to produce a higher-purity, higher-proportioned heavy rare earth product with reduced radionuclide concentrations.
Test work demonstrated that more than 90% of the higher-value magnet and heavy rare earths were retained. Final recoveries and elemental deportment remain subject to confirmation through solid assays and a complete solid-liquid mass balance.
Cobra says these results suggest that the purification step has the potential to reduce radionuclide concentrations, as well as selectively remove a proportion of lower-value lanthanum before final product precipitation.
This could increase the relative weighting of valuable magnet and heavy rare earths in the company’s mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) product and reduce the volume of lower-value material presented for downstream separation.
Managing Director Rupert Verco says the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation’s (ANSTO) initial purification test work is an “important” step in defining how the company can improve the quality of the product generated from the project.
“The work demonstrates substantial removal of radium and actinium, while also selectively reducing lower-value lanthanum and retaining magnet and heavy rare earths that underpin product value,” Verco says.
“This is the first stage of evaluating this purification step. We will now incorporate these results into engineering design and the Scoping Study, including optimisation of operating conditions and the overall economic contribution of the process.”
Further testing designed to support engineering assessment and the Scoping Study process is underway at ANSTO.
Some of the key work streams include dissolving Cobra’s MREC and applying ANSTO’s proprietary purification technology, lixiviant optimisation, resource recovery evaluation, and bench-scale in situ recovery trials.
Cobra Resources is advancing two South Australian critical minerals opportunities — Wudinna and the Manna Hill Copper Project.
Manna Hill covers 1,855km2 in South Australia’s Nackara Arc — an underexplored region with proven porphyry-style mineralisation.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Main image: Cobra Resources
