West Cobar Metals reports promising heap leach testwork at Salazar with strong rare earth recoveries, a significant expansion of its Bulla Park copper-antimony tenure, and confirmed widespread gold mineralisation at Mystique.
- Heap leach testing supports low-cost processing at Salazar
- High-value heavy rare earths and initial gallium resource confirmed
- Bulla Park tenure expanded to 1,090 km² with multiple drill targets
- Antimony grades at Bulla Park under-reported, boosting project potential
- Mystique gold exploration confirms widespread mineralisation with follow-up drilling planned
Salazar Project Shows Strong Heap Leach Potential
West Cobar Metals (ASX:WC1) has delivered encouraging metallurgical results from its Salazar Critical Mineral Project in Western Australia, confirming the deposit’s amenability to heap leach processing. Preliminary testwork using sulphuric acid achieved up to 69% extraction of total rare earth oxides plus yttrium (TREE+Y), with excellent agglomeration and permeability characteristics across ore types. These findings suggest a simplified, potentially lower-cost processing route for the large-scale near-surface resource located 120km northeast of Esperance.
The Newmont deposit within Salazar contains a rare assemblage of high-value heavy rare earth elements, notably dysprosium and terbium, which account for around 25% of the project’s basket value. Combined magnet rare earth oxides (NdPr plus heavy rare earths) represent 24.3% of the total rare earth oxide content, highlighting the premium nature of the resource. An initial inferred gallium resource of 263 million tonnes at 26 ppm Ga (35 ppm Ga2O3) has also been defined, with potential for scandium and gallium as co-products.
These metallurgical advances build on earlier work confirming heap leach suitability and strong rare earth recoveries, underpinning West Cobar’s strategy to advance Salazar toward development. The company is now focused on optimising and scaling up the heap leach process through column testing. This progress follows the company’s recent Salazar Heap Leach Potential update, which first highlighted sulphuric acid as a cost-effective reagent.
Bulla Park Copper-Antimony Project Expands with New Drill Targets
In New South Wales, West Cobar has significantly expanded its footprint in the Cobar Basin, growing its Bulla Park copper-antimony-silver project tenure to approximately 1,090 square kilometres, covering around 120 kilometres of prospective stratigraphy. This district-scale position now includes multiple drill-ready targets across the Blind Freddie and Lilyvale prospects, both associated with strong gravity anomalies and copper-gold-antimony mineralisation.
The existing Bulla Park inferred resource stands at 20 million tonnes grading 0.58% copper equivalent, containing roughly 60,000 tonnes of copper, 20,000 tonnes of antimony, and 3 million ounces of silver. Recent re-analyses using peroxide fusion digestion have revealed systematic under-reporting of antimony grades in historic assays, suggesting the deposit’s contained metal and economic value may be materially higher. This confirmation of higher antimony grades adds a new dimension to the project’s value proposition and growth potential.
West Cobar’s tenure expansion and target generation follow earlier licence applications and geophysical surveys that identified multiple anomalies analogous to the Bulla Park mineralised system. The company’s growing presence in the Cobar district underscores its commitment to defining a substantial copper-antimony-gold-silver resource base. These developments align with the company’s recent antimony grade increases announcement, which quantified the uplift in assay results.
Mystique Gold Project Confirms Widespread Mineralisation
Exploration at the Mystique Gold Project in Western Australia continues to yield promising results. Aircore drilling has confirmed widespread gold mineralisation across Themis South and Torquata prospects, with gold detected in both saprolite and bedrock. Notably, assays returned 1 metre at 2.05 g/t gold from 30 metres and 1 metre at 1.23 g/t gold from 40 metres in saprolite, indicating complex regolith processes and strong potential for primary basement mineralisation.
West Cobar is planning follow-up reverse circulation drilling to target both saprolite and bedrock mineralisation, supported by recent tenure applications adding 639 square kilometres of highly prospective ground. This exploration momentum positions the company to potentially expand its gold footprint in the region.
Corporate and Financial Position
West Cobar Metals reported a consolidated cash balance of $1.1 million as of 31 March 2026, with no debt on the balance sheet. Operating cash outflows for the quarter were $543,000, reflecting ongoing exploration and corporate costs. The company’s modest cash position suggests a limited runway, highlighting the importance of upcoming drilling results and potential capital raising initiatives.
During the quarter, Non-Executive Director Mark Bolton resigned but will continue to consult on the Salazar project for six months, ensuring continuity of expertise during this critical development phase.
Bottom Line?
West Cobar’s metallurgical progress at Salazar and expanded copper tenure at Bulla Park set the stage for near-term drilling catalysts, but modest cash reserves underscore the need for funding clarity.
Questions in the middle?
- Will further heap leach optimisation confirm Salazar’s low-cost processing potential?
- How will the revised antimony grades impact Bulla Park’s resource upgrade and economics?
- What are the timelines and funding plans for advancing Salazar and the expanded copper projects?