Core Resources has completed ion exchange resin trials for Red Metal’s Sybella Rare Earth Project, delivering strong separation and enrichment results that further de-risks the project’s processing route.

View the full announcement here.

Key Testwork Highlights

• The ion exchange program targeted Pregnant Leach Solution (PLS) derived from weak-acid leaching of the Sybella mineralisation.
• The resin loading phase achieved greater than 99% recovery of total rare earth oxides (TREO) within the first eight bed volumes, while iron and aluminium impurities passed largely un-loaded.
• Subsequent two-stage stripping delivered a liquor enriched by approximately nine-fold in TREO compared with the original PLL, while impurity concentrations (iron, aluminium, copper, nickel, zinc) were significantly reduced.
• The results indicate the potential to simplify the impurity removal chain typically required for rare earth processing, offering lower reagent consumption, streamlined operation and reduced downstream purification requirements.

Core Resources’ Role

Core designed and executed the ion exchange testwork program, including resin selection, loading trials, impurity profiling and strip liquor analysis. This work builds on prior heap-leach and bottle-roll testwork for Sybella, and feeds into Red Metal’s upcoming column leach campaigns and flow-sheet optimisation. By providing this critical data, Core is helping refine and validate processing options that support a lower-cost, technically credible pathway for the Sybella project.

What It Means for Sybella

The ion exchange outcomes strengthen the indication that a low-operating cost, heap-leach-based processing route is feasible for the granite-hosted Sybella deposit. That simplicity of processing is significant in the rare earth sector, where impurity removal steps often dominate cost and complexity. With this data in hand, Red Metal is better placed to define flowsheet parameters, validate long-term recoveries and advance its mining-scoping-study timetable.

Next Steps

Red Metal plans to progress into column leach testwork on large-diameter core samples and commence further pilot-scale optimisation of the impurity removal circuit, guided by the ion exchange insights developed by Core.

Want to learn how Core Resources can help your critical minerals project with pilot-scale testwork, resin-exchange circuits or flowsheet development? Visit our Pilot Plant and Ion Exchange Services or contact us to discuss your project needs.