RareX Achieves 9.5x TREO Upgrade and Unlocks Gallium Recovery at Cummins Range

Breakthrough Flotation Results Elevate Rare Earth Concentrate Grade

RareX Limited (ASX:REE) has reported a significant leap forward in its metallurgical testwork at the Cummins Range Rare Earths & Phosphate Project in Western Australia. SGS Lakefield’s flotation testing achieved a 9.5-fold upgrade in total rare earth oxides (TREO) grade, boosting it from 2.85% in the feed to an impressive 25.15% in the final concentrate. This result not only surpasses all prior Australian beneficiation outcomes for Cummins Range material but also validates the responsiveness of the ore to advanced reagent chemistry.

The flotation rougher concentrate delivered a strong 74.6% TREO recovery at a 6.41% grade, providing a robust foundation for further optimisation of the cleaner circuit. These figures mark a substantial improvement over previous Australian testwork that typically yielded only 2–3x grade upgrades and lower recoveries.

Mineral Liberation Pinpoints Path to Higher Recoveries

Advanced mineralogical characterisation using TIMA and laser ablation ICP-MS pinpointed monazite as the primary rare earth-bearing mineral, accounting for nearly 78% of cerium deportment. Crucially, monazite liberation grind size emerged as the principal bottleneck limiting recovery, with only about 55% liberation in flotation tails. This insight directs future testwork toward finer and staged grinding to unlock more monazite and improve concentrate grades and recoveries.

RareX’s CEO James Durrant highlighted that this mineral-scale understanding dramatically reduces technical uncertainty and enables targeted process optimisation. The company plans to explore flotation at grind sizes finer than 75 microns, alongside systematic reagent chemistry trials to enhance selectivity against diluent minerals like iron oxides and silicates.

Gallium Emerges as Valuable By-Product with Near-Complete Extraction

Laser ablation confirmed that monazite also hosts highly elevated gallium concentrations averaging 5,538 ppm, underscoring gallium’s strategic by-product potential. A dedicated hydrometallurgical program by Gega Elements Pty Ltd demonstrated near-complete gallium extraction through an optimised acid bake followed by water leaching. Ion exchange resin further recovered over 93% of gallium from the purified pregnant leach solution, establishing a credible recovery pathway.

Moreover, the acid bake method extracted high proportions of rare earth elements (71–84%), scandium (89–93%), and niobium (up to 56%), hinting at the feasibility of an integrated multi-element recovery flowsheet. This approach could complement or partially replace conventional flotation circuits, particularly for ore types less amenable to flotation.

Biological Nano-Phosphate Fertiliser Shows Promising Agronomic Performance

In parallel, RareX’s collaboration with Biological Inputs Pty Ltd on a nano-phosphate fertiliser derived from Cummins Range rock phosphate yielded encouraging greenhouse trial results. The nano-P product outperformed conventional MAP fertiliser across multiple crops and high P-fixing soils, achieving phosphorus use efficiency gains of up to 400% in some treatments. This opens an agronomic value-add dimension to the project’s phosphate stream, pending validation in larger-scale field trials.

Next Steps Focus on Process Optimisation and Flowsheet Integration

RareX is advancing a multipronged testwork program. SGS Lakefield will explore finer grind flotation with multi-pass grinding and screening, alongside reagent chemistry optimisation to improve concentrate grade beyond the current 25% TREO benchmark. Gega Elements is tasked with developing gallium recovery from enriched co-precipitation cakes and refining ion exchange separation for selective gallium and rare earth element extraction.

Additional avenues include evaluating scandium and niobium recovery from leach solutions and scoping integrated hydrometallurgical flowsheets that combine rare earths, gallium, and scandium recovery. RareX is also exploring partnerships in novel processing technologies such as flash joule heating and ionic separation to tackle mineral fractions not amenable to conventional flotation.

These metallurgical advances come on the back of RareX securing the Cummins Range mining lease and heritage agreements with the Jaru people, which have cleared key regulatory hurdles and set the stage for focused development activities. The company’s ability to upgrade concentrate grades substantially and demonstrate by-product extraction pathways materially enhances the project’s development potential and commercial viability.