West Cobar prepares first Salazar scandium drilling campaign
West Cobar Metals has engaged Wallis Drilling for its first scandium-focused campaign at the Salazar project, with work targeted for October subject to approvals. The programme will test shallow saprolite for higher-grade scandium zones and extensions to existing rare earth and titanium dioxide resources.
- Wallis Drilling engaged for Salazar air core programme
- Heritage survey completed, with report pending
- Programme of Work submitted to Western Australian regulators
- October drilling start remains subject to approvals
- Campaign will test scandium, REE and TiO2 extensions
October drilling target takes shape
West Cobar Metals (ASX:WC1) has moved its Salazar scandium campaign from planning towards execution, engaging Wallis Drilling for an air core programme scheduled to begin in October 2026. The timing is conditional, however: the company is still awaiting the heritage survey report and approval of its Programme of Work application.
The campaign will be West Cobar's first drilling programme focused specifically on scandium at the Western Australian critical minerals project. It is designed to test shallow saprolite for extensions to known scandium mineralisation and for higher-grade zones that could support future resource definition.
Scandium programme also tests existing resources
West Cobar said the drilling will not be confined to scandium. The programme is also intended to test extensions to the existing rare earth element and titanium dioxide resources at Salazar, with infill drilling planned across resource areas and work at the Benriach scandium prospect about 10 kilometres to the south-west.
Managing Director Matt Szwedzicki said the campaign would complement metallurgical testwork already under way on scandium and rare earth extraction. That creates a two-track work programme for the project, with drilling aimed at understanding the scale and grade of mineralisation while laboratory work examines potential recovery pathways. Neither workstream has yet produced a new resource estimate or an economic outcome in this announcement.
Approvals remain the immediate checkpoint
Operational preparation is advanced, but the key gates are still ahead. The heritage field survey has been completed, while the Programme of Work has only been submitted to the Western Australian Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration. West Cobar has not confirmed a final commencement date, and further programme details are due once approvals and operational arrangements are settled.
For shareholders, the next meaningful evidence will come from the regulatory decision, confirmation that drilling has started and the eventual assays. The filing sets out an exploration target and a timetable, not a change to the resource base; the question is whether the planned holes can convert the project's geological potential into additional, higher-grade scandium data.
Bottom Line?
The October target marks a concrete exploration catalyst, but the investment case still depends on approvals, drilling execution and assays that have yet to arrive.
Questions in the middle?
- Will the Programme of Work be approved in time for an October start?
- What grades and thicknesses will the air core drilling return in shallow saprolite?
- Can the campaign expand the scandium, rare earth and TiO2 resource base sufficiently to affect project economics?
