Source : THE AGE NEWS
By Doug Bright
Everest Metals Corporation has banked a $128,735 research and development (R&D) cash refund from the tax office under an Australian Government program to fuel innovation and drive the nation’s global competitiveness.
Everest views the refund as recognition and an endorsement of the significance of its research with WA’s Edith Cowan University, particularly into the critical alkali metal rubidium.
Everest Metals has partnered with Edith Cowan University’s Mineral Recovery Research Centre to explore direct rubidium extraction from its Mt Edon project.
The funds will be used for ongoing testwork and a planned scoping study.
Everest Metals Corporation executive chairman and chief executive officer Mark Caruso said: “We are pleased with the significant progress achieved at our Mt Edon critical mineral project so far and are grateful to have our dedicated efforts for rubidium extraction project formally acknowledged through the Australian Government’s R&D Tax Incentive program.”
The company’s initial interest in rubidium arose from exploration at its Mt Edon project near the historic mining hamlet of Paynes Find, about 420 kilometres by sealed road northeast of Perth.
‘We are pleased with the significant progress achieved at our Mt Edon critical mineral project so far…’
Everest Metals Corporation executive chairman and chief executive officer Mark Caruso
The locality has been prospected since the 1890s, with some historic gold mines being opened up within a few kilometres of the settlement.
More significantly in the current rubidium context, the locality also became known for the incidence of tantalite and columbite during the tantalum-niobium boom of the 1980s.
A few small shows were opened up in the area to sniff out mainly small alluvial and hard-rock tantalite deposits, all or most of which are related to pegmatite rock types.
Everest’s Mt Edon project lies within a granted mining lease and is riven by an extensive field of pegmatite dikes and sills that the company has been exploring in earnest since early 2023.
It undertook detailed exploration for pegmatites with mapping, deep ground penetration radar and drilling across the structural formation, lateral extensions and zones of the lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT)-style pegmatites, which assays show as possessing a high level of pegmatite fertility for lithium and other alkali metals.
At the outset, Everest’s primary interest appeared to lie with lithium which was running pretty hard as a favoured commodity at the time and Mt Edon had about 11km of outcropping LCT-type pegmatites.
Some of those pegmatites featured lithium and caesium-rich zones assaying up to 2.2 per cent lithium oxide and more than 550ppm caesium. High average LCT signatures of rock chip samples taken at the time included 1 per cent lithium oxide and 1106ppm caesium oxide. Tantalum occurrences were also well known.
Fast forward to May 2023 and the company identified 133 “pegmatite-like” anomalies compared with the 30 or so known from surface mapping.
Everest kicked off drilling in May 2023, intersecting pegmatite bodies in all but one drill hole and several pegmatites up to 58 metres thick.
By mid-June, Everest had identified high grade lithium with up to 4.6 per cent lithium oxide, with rubidium hits up to a startling 3.1 per cent rubidium oxide in rock chip samples, leading the company to the realisation it could have a world-class rubidium show on its hands.
Additionally, drilling intersected 40m going 0.26 per cent rubidium oxide from 49m, including 19m at 0.33 per cent rubidium oxide from 51m.
Everest got the bit between its teeth then and cranked up a second drilling program, which soon produced more high-grade lithium results, up to 0.51 per cent rubidium oxide and 80m at 0.32 rubidium oxide.
The company has now stitched together an initial possible world-class Mt Edon JORC-inferred rubidium resource estimate, comprising 3.6 million tonnes at 0.33 per cent rubidium and 0.07 per cent lithium oxide at a 0.1 per cent rubidium oxide cutoff.
That estimate includes a high-grade zone of 1.3mt at 0.33 per cent rubidium oxide.
Rubidium is highly reactive. It is used in vacuum tubes as a getter, a material that combines with and removes trace gases from vacuum tubes and can act as a catalyst in chemical reactions.
It is used in the manufacture of photocells and in special glasses, including night vision glasses and photomultiplier tubes, mostly for military use and in communications, laser cooling, atomic clocks, photocells, nuclear medicine, pyrotechnics and military-industrial propulsion systems.
Since it is easily ionised, the critical metal has been considered for possible use as a propellant in ion engines on spacecraft. Rubidium can also be used interchangeably with caesium in some applications.
The current and potential applications mean rubidium is listed as a critical metal in the global technology sector.
While Mt Edon’s grades and tonnes resource figures might seem unimpressive on first blush, it is worth noting rubidium is in very short supply and typically only exists at relatively low grades.
This equation means rubidium metal is in high demand, with prices currently around US$1200 per kilogram ($1937/kg), compared with lithium at US$12/kg ($19/kg).
The company views the current small rubidium market as being a matter of restricted supply and figures it will likely grow from 6.36 tonnes per year to 7.94t per year within three years at a calculated growth rate of 4.53 per cent.
Everest is now undertaking a scoping study in conjunction with rubidium extraction and purification testwork and expects its results to be available this quarter.
This comes after Everest appointed a technical consultant in November last year to drive the company’s evolving rubidium strategy. In December, the company’s testwork at Edith Cowan University achieved up to 91 per cent recovery of rubidium as rubidium chloride via direct rubidium extraction.
The Australian Government’s R&D Tax Incentive program provides a refundable tax offset to companies such as Everest undertaking eligible R&D activities.
The welcome initiative aims to encourage investment in R&D to fuel innovation and boost Australia’s global competitiveness, drive economic growth and create new job opportunities.
Everest is undertaking additional engineering scoping studies and is also exploring further grant funding based on the criticality of the metal.
Its current emphasis is on determining the most efficient and economically viable process to recover rubidium and hence value from the project overall.
The project could be a sleeper sitting in the background with a strong chance of gaining prominence as an important supplier of this critical and versatile metal.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
