Reach Resources Shifts Focus on Critical Minerals Projects, Ramps Up Exploration Work

Increasing market activity around critical metals has prompted Australia-based Reach Resources (ASX:RR1) to pivot away from gold exploration and focus on its lithium, rare earths and manganese projects in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, according to CEO Jeremy Bower.

“With the market so buoyant around rare earths and other battery metals, it was prudent for us to spend more effort and funds on our Gascoyne region tenure,” Bower said. "The Gascoyne region in Western Australia is emerging as probably one of the hottest critical metals regions in the country."

The company has strengthened its presence in the Gascoyne region with two recent acquisitions consisting of four tenements that are highly prospective for lithium, rare earth elements and manganese. These new tenements add to the company’s existing critical minerals portfolio, which includes the Skyline rare earths project and the Critical Elements rare earths project.

One of the new acquisitions, the White Castles manganese project, lies to the east of the Skyline project, and is part of a 200 kilometre long strike with an extensive belt of manganese deposits within the Edmund and Collier sedimentary basin, according to Bower.

“We were deliberately in pursuit of these as we see manganese as a great diversification for the company. It's the fourth (most) used metal globally (with) no substitute in the steelmaking process. So clearly there's significant demand just on that,” the chief executive said. He added that the booming electric vehicle market and demand for battery metals are also contributing to demand for manganese, which is increasingly used in cathodes for lithium-ion batteries.

The second acquisition, comprised of Morrissey Hill and Camel Hill, sits next to the company’s Critical Elements project and is prospective for lithium and rare earths mineralisation.

“The really important aspect on this one, and why we chased this one down, was it adjoins Red Dirt Metals’ (ASX:RDT) Yinnetharra lithium project … it is the same complex, which actually runs through our tenement, where they've had success with the drill bit in finding lithium,” Bower explained.

Exploration work on these tenements is expected to commence at the beginning of March, he said.

Watch the full interview with Reach Resources CEO Jeremy Bower above.