Just some long term background on your post Gmoney79.
The company has set this in motion a few times and also made some bold and some factual statements regarding the REE project met work.
21/0722 was the first mention of a met study .....which would take a few months.
"The Company is developing a metallurgical study to test the recovery of these metals.
Metallurgical studies will be conducted under the supervision of the Company’s director Mr
Mathew Longworth and metallurgical consultant Mr Gavin Beer."
28/09/22 the company knows that things are positive .... if you can read positive from encouraging. The first sign of trouble?.... more expensive than initially though to extract?
"Preliminary metallurgical studies to date have been encouraging. Metallurgical, beneficiation
and leaching test work is ongoing and will serve our understanding of the commerciality of
processing."
24/10/22 looks very close to completion and at this stage much information would be known!
"The Company is presently very active in its metallurgical studies, and it is our principal
undertaking at present. Our experienced geoscientists and metallurgists are working on a
sole goal, to liberate our REEs, Sc, Co, in the simplest and most cost-effective method. This
work is looking at the beneficiation and leaching of the key potentially payable elements
which occur within the same mineralised regolith system at Yttria.
We will soon release an update regarding our metallurgical testwork progress that will allow
for a simplified understanding of what we have, what we have achieved and our future
direction and timing. Our Company's goal is to obtain a combined commercial liberation of
the majority of its REE's, and critical minerals.”
30/01/23 - Chairmans update - Legitimate points raised and first hand into the fact complexity has been a factor. Still would think at this point the focus on met work would produce results in 6 months based on all the info they had already. End of July for results perhaps.
"Further, delays were experienced with the promised "first pass" metallurgy on two fronts.
Firstly, getting laboratories and metallurgical consultants to be able to undertake the scientific
analysis required within a reasonable period. Secondly, the unique science involved in the
extraction pathway to liberate rare earths and critical minerals from their host clays and
material.
Remember that the Company’s rare earths and critical mineral occurrences are quite
structurally unique; it is a complex task to follow someone else's methodology. Our experiences
have led to a much better understanding of the timing required to achieve metallurgical
analysis and a resource definition. The Company was misled in the past as to what could be a
realistic timeline to complete such a process. These past events, however, have not dampened
the enthusiasm and belief of our 2023 team.
We are also focusing on the metallurgy of rare earths and critical minerals with some recent
and positive input on the science of extraction and structural identification by Ken. Alongside
this process, we will continue to drill more methodically, stepping out to identify size and
structure."
15/02/23 - company presentation - Back to the drawing board! - No comment on previous extraction efforts by Matt or Gavin.
"Collecting a well understood and representative metallurgical REE sample"
15/03/23 - things far better stated with a real insight into the full on process and maybe some real truths behind the time taken.
“There is little doubt as to the complexity of an understanding of REE’s. We have espoused
in the past as to the uniqueness of ASRA’s REE discovery, the lack of Thorium and Uranium,
the regolith and shallow nature of the REE occurrences and the very high ratio of HREO to
TREO so far unmatched. However, the learning process continues as without an economic
liberation of REE’s the uniqueness of the occurrences means little.
Unlike some discoveries being announced in the elevated hunt for REE’s, ASRA has been
very open with its entire data, revealing the extent and geochemical variability of its
discovery, the path it has taken, and the direction forward.
The past months have seen an extended period of gathering and understanding of data of
which the new geological team have worked very hard to achieve and have arrived at an
exciting turning point for the Company.
I gave up looking ......... but more of the same.
You have got to wonder whether the mets are not as economically viable as potentially suggested .............or the play is to be made more compelling through a larger scale and with a larger footprint of samples so that if successful we will be taken notice of.
350 kg seems like a big representative sample. Is this normal?
Robin has been very methodical in the process. Is all this prolonged overall REE process going to result in a sped up process down the track? Easier to secure serious off-takes?
Terminology changed in recent quarterly about met work time frames. No pending or imminent.
It has been a long road that is for sure. Options ......... perhaps unfortunate.
Let's go ASRA. I will keep the faith until met work. Failure here is a no go!
Good luck all.
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