Highlights
- RareX reports first-pass exploration at Mt Mansbridge with 39 rock chips and 1,000+ soil samples revealing promising heavy rare earth oxide occurrences.
- Exploration targets Browns Range-style xenotime-hosted mineralisation with potential strategic significance for non-Chinese rare earth supply chains.
- Key investor watch points include:
- Upcoming drilling
- Metallurgy testing
- Resource scale confirmation
- Downstream processing pathways
RareX (ASX: REE) reports (opens in a new tab) first-pass exploration at Mt Mansbridge (WA Kimberley) with multiple heavy rare earth oxide (HREO) occurrences from 39 rock chips and 1,000+ soils. Highlight assays include up to 1.7% TREO with ~10% Dy+Tb, altered sandstone to 0.7% TREO with ~13% Dy+Tb, and a standout 2.7% TREO at the Sigma prospect (very high HRE proportions reported). The target model references Browns Rangeโstyle, xenotime-hosted HRE mineralisation ~40 km awayโgeologically plausible and long noted in historic work.
Shine vs. Substance
The grades are realโbut theyโre rock chips and soils, not drill-defined widths or tonnage. Prior drilling by Red Mountain (2022) at Sigma yielded 16 m @ 0.28% TREO (incl. 1 m @ 1.06%), hinting at fertility but not yet proving scale. Until continuity, metallurgy, and economics are demonstrated via drilling, this remains an encouraging target, not a resource.
Sponsored Glow, Read the Fine Print
Much of the coverage is โSpecial Reportโ/sponsored trade media, which tends to emphasize upside and compress risk. Claims that Mt Mansbridge has the โright ingredientsโ for a hard-rock HRE deposit are reasonable, but forward-leaning; investors should demand follow-through: drill density, representativity of samples, impurity suite (e.g., U/Th), and recoveries from xenotime-bearing hosts.
Why It Matters to the Supply Chain
Dy/Tb are the choke points for high-temperature magnets. A non-Chinese, hard-rock HRE discovery would be strategically meaningfulโespecially if RareX can prove scale and deliver a processing route aligned with emerging non-Chinese midstream capacity. Until then, the bottleneck remains downstream: separation and magnet supply chains are still concentrated in China, so any discovery must be paired with credible refining/offtake pathways.
REEx Investor Watch-List
- Drilling next: When, where, and with what spacing to convert chips into intercepts?
- Metallurgy: Xenotime processing route, recoveries, and deleterious elements.
- Scale: From isolated veins to continuous bodiesโwhatโs the footprint?
- Path to market: Who refinishes Dy/Tb ex-China, and on what timeline?
Citation: RareX ASX release, โHigh Grade Heavy Rare Earths Identified at Mt Mansbridge,โ Sept. 10, 2025; StockHead, SmallCaps/ShareCafe/The Pick coverage of assay highlights and program scope.
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