Rimfire Pacific Mining launches first MRE for Melrose and Murga North scandium prospects

Rimfire Pacific Mining (ASX: RIM) It has released “extremely encouraging” initial scandium resource estimates for its Melrose and Murga North prospects under the Fifield project in central New South Wales.

The company reported an indicated and inferred resource of 3 million tonnes at a scandium grade of 240 million parts per million and 1,120 tonnes of scandium oxide at Melrose, which is largely “closed”.

Murga North, which is open to the south and west, has an estimated resource of 21 Mt at 125 ppm scandium for 4,050 tonnes of scandium oxide.

Change of focus

Historically, the majority of exploration in the region has focused on gold and platinum.

However, since 2022, Rimfire and its exploration partner Golden Plains Resources have been working on a Scandinavian-focused strategy in potential areas such as Melrose, Murga, Tout East and Derriwong, with the aim of building a globally significant resource inventory.

The Murga field, part of Rimfire’s extensive holdings, is located in an area with significant potential for scandium, as evidenced by strong results from exploration at the nearby Currajong and Forrest View sites.

Murga target

Rimfire confirmed the existence of an exploration target containing between 100 million to 200 million tonnes of scandium at 100 ppm to 200 ppm across the Murga region.

The target is based on a scandium-bearing pyroxenite outline interpreted from aeromagnetic data and the results of a recent air core campaign that intersected strong scandium anomalies at multiple locations within the target boundaries.

Since it is not known whether the entire pyroxenite area is likely to be mined, only 50% of the area is included in the target coverage.

Critical metal

Scandium is a high-value critical metal included in Australia’s 2023 critical minerals list and the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) 2022 list of 50 mineral commodities critical to the economy and national security.

Pricing set by the USGS has ranged from $2,100 per kilogram in 2019 to $3,900 per kilogram in 2023 for scandium oxide, and from $134,000 to $269,000 per kilogram for scandium metal over the same period.

Scandium is used as one of the base materials in hydrogen electrolysis solid oxide fuel cell technology and in the production of lightweight and high-strength aluminum alloys.

The US is currently entirely dependent on scandium imports from Europe, China, Japan and Russia to meet its domestic needs, and rising demand for the metal is thought to be a supply constraint.

Rimfire believes that advanced manufacturers will look to secure long-term supplies of the metal in favourable jurisdictions, such as Australia, before switching to the use of scandium alloyed aluminium material in their products.