Axel REE converts Woolrich leachate into its first rare earth carbonate

Woolrich Produces First Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate

Axel REE Limited (ASX:AXL) has taken its Woolrich rare earth project beyond leaching and into product formation, producing a 54.4% total rare earth oxide mixed rare earth carbonate from column-leach solutions. The laboratory-scale test achieved 97% TREO and 99% magnet rare earth oxide precipitation without a dedicated impurity-removal stage, an outcome that could support a simpler flowsheet if it can be reproduced under representative operating conditions.

The product contained 19.5% magnet rare earth oxides, including neodymium-praseodymium at 18.57% and dysprosium-terbium at 0.95%. Uranium and thorium were particularly low at 0.78 parts per million and 0.10 parts per million respectively. Only 15.11 grams of dried carbonate was produced, however, and Axel says further work is needed on precipitation conditions, reagent use, product washing, impurity control and commercial product specifications.

Resource Growth Gives Woolrich a Firmer ISR Base

The result arrives alongside a substantial resource upgrade. Axel’s Caladão global REE resource increased 24% to 708.6 million tonnes grading 1,443 parts per million TREO, while the global gallium resource rose 31% to 575.7Mt grading 37.05 parts per million. The figures cover roughly half of the 420-square-kilometre project area, with each of the four deposits remaining open along strike and at depth.

At Woolrich, the resource more than doubled to 264.6Mt at 1,101ppm TREO and 34.7ppm gallium. The deposit now includes a 110.1Mt maiden Indicated Resource, representing about 42% of Woolrich’s total estimate. That higher-confidence portion was generated from drilling at approximately 200-metre by 200-metre spacing and is the geological area selected for Axel’s proposed field program. The Woolrich resource upgrade had already more than doubled the deposit in September.

Field Validation Remains the Critical Next Step

Woolrich remains Axel’s priority for testing in situ recovery using magnesium sulphate to leach ionic-clay-hosted rare earths. Earlier column work produced up to 560ppm soluble TREO with a 39% magnet rare earth oxide basket under mild conditions, and the company has since been refining reagent strength, solution throughput and recovery behaviour. The new carbonate result shows that the leach solution can be concentrated into an intermediate product, but it does not establish field recovery, project economics or commercial-scale product quality.

Axel’s next major milestone is the design of a controlled field validation program. The proposed work is intended to test solution migration, containment, transmissivity, recovery and wash-out behaviour, with hydrogeological, environmental, permitting, regulatory and funding requirements still ahead. The planned Woolrich ISR testing had been framed as the next technical hurdle after bench-scale recoveries reached 560ppm soluble TREO.

Gallium and Scandium Results Advance a Separate Pathway

Axel also reported progress on a separate metallurgical route at Tiger Creek. Independent testwork on a composite sample achieved up to 95% gallium and 74% scandium extraction using oxalic acid, while sulphuric acid delivered 90% gallium and 70% scandium extraction. The Tiger Creek extraction results marked a sharp improvement from earlier programs, although the latest work used different samples and conditions and is not a like-for-like comparison.

The test sample assayed 63ppm gallium, above the wider resource grade, so Axel cautions that the results should not be treated as representative of the entire Caladão gallium resource. The next technical problems are less about dissolving gallium and more about reducing reagent consumption, managing aluminium and iron selectivity, and recovering gallium and scandium from solution.

Cash Position Supports the Next Work Program

Axel held A$4.7 million in cash at 30 September after a quarter that consumed A$1.017 million in operating cash, including A$421,000 on exploration and evaluation. On the company’s reported calculation, that equates to an estimated 4.6 quarters of funding at the current rate of net operating outflow. The figure is a runway estimate rather than a funding commitment, and the cost of advancing field validation, environmental work and further metallurgical testing could change the cash requirement.

Caldas South has also emerged as a second potential ISR area, with soluble mineralisation identified in near-surface drilling, but it remains behind Woolrich in the development sequence. Axel plans further drilling and leach testing at Caldas while the immediate investment case turns on whether Woolrich can convert promising laboratory chemistry into controlled, repeatable field performance.