Encouraging Beneficiation Results for Rare Earth Element (REE) Clays at Point Kidman Prospect, East Laverton

MTM Critical Metals Limited (ASX:MTM) (MTM or the Company) has received the results of preliminary metallurgical test work on four composite drilling samples collected from the Point Kidman REE prospect, at its East Laverton Project in Western Australia.

• Initial beneficiation test work results on Point Kidman clay-hosted rare earth element (REE) mineralisation are very encouraging.
• By selectively removing coarse (large) particles from the clay samples, significant potential benefits have been identified:
  • Increased Total REE (TREE) and higher-value Magnet REE (MREE) grades; and
  • Average of 76% TREE recovered in samples less than 106 µm size fraction.
• Significant grade improvement from beneficiation (discarding of the +20 µm size fraction):
  • Increase in head grade from 3,071 ppm TREE to 7,120 ppm TREE (sample 04591)
  • Average TREE grade increase across all samples ~100%.
• Results indicate that a majority of REEs can be recovered in fine fractions, suggesting that simple beneficiation may allow for a substantial reduction in waste processing and reduced reagent consumption in a future process plant design.
• Successful initial leach test results show up to 76% TREE recovery (using 100 g/L HCl).
• Preliminary metallurgical recoveries compare favourably to other known clay-hosted REE deposits in Western Australia.

Basic metallurgical tests including analysis of different size fractions and leach tests were completed to evaluate recovery of REEs from widespread clay-hosted mineralisation identified by previous aircore drilling.

MTM Managing Director, Mr Lachlan Reynolds, said that the Company was encouraged by the substantial uplift in head grade and rejection of low-grade material that can be achieved by simple particle size separation.

“Preliminary metallurgical test work on the clay-hosted rare earths at Point Kidman, including beneficiation and leaching, shows that there are significant opportunities to potentially optimise the future processing of the clay-hosted mineralisation. This is a major step forward in proving the economic viability of a rare earth deposit at East Laverton.

“We are very pleased to see that simple beneficiation can achieve up to 100% uplift in rare earth grades, including the valuable magnet rare earth elements such as neodymium and praseodymium.

“Further test work is required, particularly with respect to the leaching of the mineralisation but as our exploration is defining a substantial district scale development of shallow rare earth element mineralisation these results are important for our strategy of resource discovery and delineation.”

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