Rimfire ramps up scandium scouting

The exploration targets include the Melrose and Murga North areas, which are believed to contain at least three million tonnes (Mt) at 240 parts per million (ppm) scandium, and 21Mt at 125ppm scandium respectively.

Rimfire managing director David Hutton welcomed the site’s maiden resource estimate.

“Declaring maiden scandium mineral resources for Melrose and Murga North is an important first step in achieving our objective of building a globally significant scandium resource inventory at Fifield,” Hutton said.

“An accompanying exploration target for the broader Murga area also highlights the excellent potential to build upon the maiden mineral resources.”

While the Melrose mineral resource is largely “closed off”, the Murga North mineral resource remains open to the west and south.

Rimfire hopes to establish satellite scandium projects in the broader Murga prospect, with infill aircore and diamond drilling now planned to upgrade its mineral resource estimate, with the aim of turning it into an bona-fide exploration target.

The planned drilling is set to break ground in October and will be fully funded by Rimfire’s exploration partner, Golden Plains Resources (GPR).

Historically, the majority of exploration work throughout the area has focused on gold and platinum.

Since embarking upon a scandium-focused exploration strategy in late 2022, Rimfire and GPR have been steadily developing a pipeline of scandium prospects with the objective of building a “globally significant” scandium resource inventory.

In addition to Melrose, Murga North and the broader Murga area, there are other prospects within Rimfire’s scandium pipeline the company is also planning to further investigate, including the Forrest View, Currajong, Kars and Tout East and Derriwong prospects.

Scandium is included in both Australia’s 2023 Critical Minerals List and the United States Geological Survey’s 2022 List of 50 mineral commodities critical to the economy and national security of both countries.

The two main uses for scandium are for energy decarbonisation technologies like hydrogen and synthetic liquid fuels, and for creating high-strength aluminium alloys.