Axel REE has more than doubled the Woolrich resource to 264.6 million tonnes and delivered its first Indicated classification at the Brazilian rare earths project. The upgrade comes as the loss-making explorer prepares a controlled in-situ recovery field validation program, with A$5.73 million in cash at year-end.
- Woolrich resource rises 107% to 264.6Mt at 1,101ppm TREO
- Maiden 110.1Mt Indicated Resource established at Woolrich
- Global Caladão resource reaches 708.6Mt at 1,443ppm TREO
- Column leaching recovered up to 560ppm soluble TREO
- FY2026 loss widens to A$3.64m as cash falls to A$5.73m
Woolrich resource crosses 264 million tonnes
Axel REE Limited (ASX:AXL, FSE: HN8) has shifted its Brazilian portfolio another step towards development, reporting a 107% increase in the Woolrich Mineral Resource to 264.6 million tonnes at 1,101ppm total rare earth oxide (TREO) and 34.7ppm gallium. The post-year-end estimate includes a maiden 110.1Mt Indicated Resource, representing about 42% of Woolrich, with the balance remaining Inferred.
The update lifts the broader Caladão rare earths inventory by 24% to 708.6Mt at 1,443ppm TREO and the gallium resource by 31% to 575.7Mt at 37.05ppm. All of the deposits remain open along strike and at depth, according to Axel, although the company has no Ore Reserves and the majority of its resource remains in the lower-confidence Inferred category.
Column leaching supports ISR development
Woolrich is now the company’s main test of whether ionic-clay rare earths can be recovered through in-situ recovery (ISR), rather than conventional mining and processing. Laboratory column testing recovered 560ppm soluble TREO at 39% magnet rare earth oxide using 0.25M magnesium sulphate at pH 4.0, while a lower-concentration test recovered 494ppm. Axel reported low cumulative impurities, including aluminium below 2ppm, iron below 0.5ppm, thorium below 5.5ppm and uranium below 4ppm.
Those results support the next, more demanding stage rather than settle the commercial question. Axel plans to complete leach optimisation and hydrogeological work before designing a controlled field validation program across an approximately two-hectare area at Woolrich. The test is intended to establish how the system behaves under field conditions and whether the evidence is strong enough to justify larger-scale pilot testing.
Losses rise as exploration spending accelerates
The balance sheet is carrying the project into that work, but not indefinitely. Axel ended FY2026 with A$5.73 million in cash, down from A$8.71 million, after using A$2.93 million in operating cash. The annual loss widened to A$3.64 million from A$3.22 million, with exploration and evaluation expense rising to A$2.27 million.
Management says its cash-flow forecast supports the going-concern basis for at least 12 months from the report date. That is a funding statement, not a production milestone: Axel remains pre-revenue, and its annual report warns that further funding may be needed as exploration and development work expands. The company also carries minimum exploration expenditure commitments of A$355,195 across the next five years.
Gallium adds a second development question
Rare earths are not the only potential value driver. Acid-leach work at the Caladão project lifted gallium extraction from an earlier 25% result to about 50% in one ANSTO program, while later Tiger Creek testing on a single composite reported up to 95% gallium and 74% scandium extraction. Axel stressed that the Tiger Creek result is preliminary and should not be treated as representative of the 439Mt gallium resource as a whole.
The immediate catalyst is therefore technical rather than financial: hydrogeological studies, final leach optimisation and the controlled Woolrich field program. Whether the expanded resource can support a repeatable, contained and economically viable ISR operation will depend on evidence still to be generated outside the laboratory.
Bottom Line?
Axel has improved both resource scale and geological confidence, but the investment case now turns on field validation, funding discipline and whether laboratory recoveries translate into an economic ISR system.
Questions in the middle?
- Can Woolrich’s low-impurity leach response be reproduced under controlled field conditions?
- How much of the expanded Caladão resource can ultimately move beyond Inferred classification?
- Will Axel need to raise capital before the ISR program and broader development studies are complete?