Latest Rare Earth Elements News

Connected Minerals has made Angola’s Bailundo niobium and rare earths project its flagship after writing off A$3.40 million in Namibian and Western Australian exploration assets. The pivot is now backed by a completed A$4.5 million placement and a planned 6,000-metre drilling campaign, but Bailundo remains an exploration-stage project without a declared resource.

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.

Astron Limited (ASX:ATR) says its Donald rare earths and mineral sands project is construction-ready, with a $759 million Phase 1 pre-tax NPV and first production targeted for 2028. The unresolved question is whether debt financing can convert the project’s strong study economics into a final investment decision.

Magnum Mining has completed more than 10,000 metres of drilling at its Piracanjuba North rare earths project in Brazil and is shifting its main effort to the 32.5km² Plateau Zone. A further 2,000-metre diamond drilling phase will run alongside independent resource, radiological and metallurgical studies, although delayed assay turnaround creates a risk to the company’s November timetable.

Mount Ridley Mines says its third Selectro™ leach test lifted scandium recovery to 91.8% while using roughly half the reagent dose of earlier tests. Heavy and light rare earth recoveries also improved, although gallium recovery fell sharply.

Oceana Metals has more than doubled the confirmed rare earth mineralisation footprint at its Serra Negra project in Brazil to over 4.5 square kilometres. The result adds scale and several high-grade intervals, but 45 historical holes remain awaiting assays and true widths are not yet known.

Empire Resources has identified rare earth oxide and phosphate mineralisation across three Yuinmery prospects, with new archived-drilling results reaching 1,712.5ppm TREO+Y. The early-stage opportunity now depends on additional assays, follow-up drilling and proof that the material can be upgraded economically.

Deep Yellow reported a A$13.3 million FY2026 profit and moved its Tumas uranium project closer to a targeted fourth-quarter investment decision. The company remains debt free, but acknowledges it will need external capital to fund construction.

Basin Energy has secured a three-year research collaboration with James Cook University to investigate improved extraction and recovery of heavy rare earths at its Sybella-Barkly project. The deal carries no cash payment, but JCU will own the resulting project intellectual property and data.

MRG Metals says grid hand-auger drilling has outlined a visually mineralised 1.6 square kilometre footprint at its Adriano rare earths project in Mozambique. The result expands the exploration picture, but laboratory assays are still pending and no Mineral Resource has yet been established.

Australian Rare Earths has extended its Overland carbonatite discovery roughly 5km south, with hole OV176 intersecting 130 metres of interpreted carbonatite and ending within the unit. The geological footprint now appears to track a 10km magnetic corridor, but assays will determine whether the system carries meaningful niobium and rare earth grades.

Gold Mountain has returned thick, shallow rare earth intersections at Capivara, including 8 metres at 1,513 ppm TREO, while several auger holes ended near mineralisation. The company now plans deeper drilling to determine whether the strongest results continue through the saprolite profile.