“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
It’s a quote famously attributed to renowned physicist and Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein.
And while we don’t know how relevant mining was to Einstein, the quote certainly rings true for North West Queensland’s major outback mining hub: Mount Isa.
Part one of Mining.com.au’s Mount Isa Renaissance series celebrated the region’s rich mining history. Today, we dive further into the present and future as Mount Isa’s mining story is far from over.
While concerns were rightfully raised upon the shutdown of Glencore’s (LSE:GLEN) Mount Isa Mines copper operations in July 2025, the emergence of critical minerals policies and recent findings have redeemed the region’s mining focus.
Recently, the Delivering for Queensland initiative has highlighted the state’s demand for a local source of critical minerals.
The Queensland Government launched its Delivering Queensland’s Critical Minerals Future 2026–30 strategy at the end of July, outlining the state’s vision to be a globally recognised supplier of critical minerals.
Delivering Queensland’s Critical Minerals Future 2026–30 sets a clear plan to grow the sector, build sovereign capability, and attract new investment as the state emerges as a destination of choice for critical minerals projects.
Mount Isa and the broader North West Minerals Province is no stranger to this, with the Mount Isa Transformation Study currently underway, backed by the Queensland Government.
The study intends to assess the full copper value chain across North West Queensland regions to ensure long-term industrial capability and regional growth opportunities.
CRU International is leading the study on behalf of a consortium, conducting meetings with stakeholders, including industry, investors, councils, workers, and local communities.
The Mount Isa Transformation Study will evaluate the full copper value chain from Mount Isa through to Townsville, before a final report is provided by the end of 2026.
However, Mount Isa’s mining focus is expanding beyond copper — what the region has been traditionally known for — and explorers such as Basin Energy (ASX:BSN) and Red Metal (ASX:RDM) can testify to it.
New elements enter the equation
Red Metal’s Sybella rare earth oxide (REO) discovery is located in the Mount Isa Inlier. The discovery is described as ‘unique’ for its granite-hosted deposit type, which offers positive characteristics not typically seen in clay-hosted and monazite-dominated REO deposits.
At Sybella, the REO-enriched granite target extends over 12km and is 3km wide, which Red Metal says offers “very large tonnage potential”.
Sybella’s resource estimate defined ‘large’ tonnages with ‘good’ magnet rare earth oxide grades, starting at surface and remaining open below 100m.
This includes 4.795 billion tonnes @ 302 parts per million (ppm) neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) and 28ppm dysprosium-terbium (DyTb), using a 200ppm NdPr cut-off grade.
The total resources also include ‘significant’ at surface inferred mineral resources of weathered granite, which Red Metal says represent “advantageous early mining opportunities” and includes 788 million tonnes @ 297ppm NdPr and 28ppm DyTb, using the same NdPr cut-off grade.
Late last month, Red Metal commenced a Prefeasibility Study (PFS) at the Sybella deposit to assess the economic viability of heap leach processing, as reported by Mining.com.au.
The PFS is expected to be completed by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
Located adjacent to and within the same granite complex as Red Metal’s discovery, Basin Energy’s Sybella-Barkly Project spans a total area of 5,864km2 to the west of Mount Isa.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Managing Director Pete Moorhouse says having Red Metal’s Sybella discovery right next door to its Sybella-Barkly Project “takes a lot of risk out of exploration” before conducting drilling.
“Red Metal proved the Sybella Batholith can host rare earths at genuine scale, and critically, appear to be amenable to a low-cost processing pathway,” Moorhouse tells this news service.
“This gave us the confidence to move quickly from surface work into drilling.
“Our drilling at Newmans has defined our own variation, a preserved-weathering model where the best grades sit in strongly weathered granite that has been protected from erosion.”
Basin Energy began drilling at the Newmans prospect earlier this month, marking the first of three proposed drilling programs scheduled for H2 2026.
At Newmans, Basin Energy is testing the continuity of the 3.3km mineralised corridor that was identified in late June.
“Maiden drilling returned magnet rare earth mineralisation in four of eight holes and defined a 3.3km corridor, and so far, the grade appears to consistently track how well the weathering profile is preserved when sitting upon the right fertile granite unit,” Moorhouse explains.
“That gives us a repeatable, mappable control. We also hold around 685km2 over the batholith, with multiple untested anomalies from earlier auger and surface sampling.
“We are [at an] early stage but now have multiple compelling shallow hits, along with a rapidly explorable geological model and a dominant landholding.”
Calculating Mount Isa’s investment potential
It’s no secret that the Queensland Government has been focusing on Mount Isa’s copper potential and broader critical mineral investments statewide.
For Basin Energy, Managing Director Moorhouse says the company’s reach in the rare earths and uranium space “transforms the investment case”.
“Copper built Mount Isa and it is not going anywhere. What has changed is that the same district is now proving prospective for rare earths and other critical minerals, not to mention the uranium potential,” Moorhouse tells this news service.
“Critical minerals carry strategic priority with the Queensland and federal governments and with Western supply chains, so they attract co-funding, exploration capital, and downstream interest that a single-commodity story would not.
“It gives the region a second act.”
The Queensland Government owns the Queensland Critical Minerals Fund (QCMF), a Queensland Investment Corporation-run initiative.
Earlier this year, the state government expanded the fund’s capital base to $250 million in the 2026–27 State Budget to further unlock critical mineral opportunities, as reported.
This investment is paying off for the state and its economy, with up to 200 construction jobs and 60 ongoing roles set to be created at Aeon Metals’ Walford Creek Project, which sits 350km northwest of Mount Isa.
Aeon Metals was one of the first of many companies to receive backing from the expanded fund, securing a $20 million investment to support the completion of Feasibility Studies and resource expansion drilling.
Other companies that have been supported by QCMF include Iltani Resources (ASX:ILT) and QMines (ASX:QML).
It will come as no surprise if the state and federal governments continue to focus on a region with such a broad and strong exposure to critical mineral resources.
“Mount Isa is heading from a great mining town to a critical minerals province,” Moorhouse adds.
“The themes I expect are commodity diversification, district-scale thinking on infrastructure, government acting as an exploration partner, and potentially value-adding in the region rather than exporting raw product.
“Driving all of it is Western supply chain security, and Mount Isa is one of the best-placed districts anywhere to answer that demand.”
The building blocks are already there
As Queensland opens its wallet on the security of Australia’s critical minerals supply chain, Mount Isa is already built and ready to go.
Mount Isa’s long history as a mining town means the region already has much of the infrastructure needed for a mining renaissance, limiting the additional funding required by explorers, major mining companies, firms, and government bodies.
Basin Energy Managing Director Moorhouse explains that this existing infrastructure can almost wholly be inherited by up-and-coming next-generation critical minerals projects.
“Rail, gas, sealed roads, power, services, and an experienced workforce are already there, and for explorers like us that is a huge head start on cost and timing, which equally has the potential to flow through to the development and mining stage,” Moorhouse tells this news service.
“The gap is downstream: rare earth processing and separation capacity does not yet exist in the region, and that is where government and private investment can make the biggest difference, potentially as common-user infrastructure.
“The foundations, though, are already built.”
With Basin’s Sybella-Barkly Project located so close to Red Metal’s Sybella discovery, this opens the door to shared infrastructure or a common processing solution to combat prices that may not be economic for one project alone.
Moorhouse says this solution holds conceptual weight, crafting “one of the most interesting parts of the district story”.
“Processing and separation carry big economies of scale, so a shared solution could work at a district level where a single early stage project would struggle to carry it alone,” Moorhouse adds.
“However, this is a concept, not a discussion happening between companies today. The mineralisation style seen at Sybella helps, as it is weak-acid-soluble and amenable to heap leaching.
“It is too early to define what would make that viable, but the principle is that you size infrastructure to a district, not one deposit.
“One of the exceptional benefits of our location is the existing mining infrastructure that is transferable, built from over 100 years of mining industry at Mount Isa.”
Solving for tomorrow
Another scheme for Queensland-based explorers is the Collaborative Exploration Initiative (CEI), a Queensland Government incentive that helps explorers discover and develop critical mineral deposits.
The CEI was first launched in December 2017, evolving from the earlier Collaborative Drilling Initiative that began in 2007.
Currently, the CEI is preparing for exploration by applicants successful in round 10 funding. Round 10 has been deemed the final round of the CEI program.
Companies engaged in the final round of the CEI program are required to finalise access to the project site by 1 September, followed by activity commencing by 1 October and completed by 4 December 2026.
Geoscientific data from these exploration programs will be published on the GSQ Open Data Portal on 2 August 2027.
Moorhouse says government support that directly derisks early stage exploration, which can otherwise be difficult to attract capital for, makes the biggest practical difference for explorers.
“The Queensland’s Collaborative Exploration Initiative, which comes to an end shortly but ran for 10 years, was a great success for this and will be sadly missed,” Moorhouse tells Mining.com.au.
“The program has supported some exceptional early stage concepts, some of which have worked and others not, but that’s the nature of exploration.
“Furthermore, the Zero Rent Initiative removes holding costs across a large land position, and that money goes straight back into the ground.
“Quality pre-competitive geoscience data and predictable approvals matter too, but for a junior the CEI-style support is the single biggest practical difference.”
The Queensland Government announced the rent for new and existing exploration permits would be reduced to $0 for five years in September 2023. The rent reduction is designed to support companies to redirect funds towards exploration activities.
This initiative equates to approximately $55 million of forgone revenue, according to the Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development.
For Mount Isa in particular, only time will tell how the state and federal governments continue to contribute to the growth of the mining region.
Thus far, the region is clearly a priority for the safety of Queensland’s critical minerals supply chain — and the state government and explorers are backing it.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au, Glencore, Red Metal, Basin Energy & Mount Isa City Council
