RareX to ramp up Cummins Range phosphate opportunity on promising test results

RareX (ASX: REE) plans to ramp up investigations into the development of the significant phosphate deposit at its Cummins Range project in Western Australia, while revealing it will place its rare earth development activities at the site on hold due to a slowdown in that market.

Cummins Range – rated as Australia’s largest undeveloped rare earth project with a deposit of 1.6 million tonnes – also holds 24Mt of phosphate.

It is the potential of this resource that RareX intends to assess further.

Phosphate product

The high potential value of the phosphate as a stand-alone product or as an adjunct to rare earth development has seen RareX look into the possibility of early phosphate product generation.

RareX released a scoping study in August 2023 suggesting that the phosphate content of the Cummins Range resource could provide a low-capital entrance into operations before expanding into rare earths.

The company is now working on a number of areas to update the assessments contained in that study.

Alternate technology

As part of its renewed investigations, RareX is also assessing alternative phosphate technology that may provide a potential reduction in start-up costs for Cummins Range.

The results of those tests are due in November.

“The technology we are now testing for phosphate extraction has the potential to de-couple one product’s reliance from the others,” managing director James Durrant said.

Due to the prevailing metal market conditions, the Cummins Range pre-feasibility study has been revised to focus on improving metallurgical solutions for phosphate extraction including biotechnological methods, so that significant capital cost savings over conventional flotation methods may be achieved.

The company is confident its staged development of Cummins Range is a practical, fundable and lower-risk approach that plays to the strengths of the deposit, where parts of the shallow orebody are more enriched in phosphate relative to rare earths.

Market upside

RareX has identified new clean energy technology breakthroughs as having potential to improve the current soft phosphate prices.

It says growing market interest in lithium-iron-phosphate batteries has the potential to change the market direction.

The company is initially focusing on the fertiliser market for its phosphate development planning and has conducted a metallurgical program that has produced product samples for testing by potential offtake market customers in Australia and South East Asia.