Media

A short extract from an article today from **********  which mentions Ardea as follows.

Most investors in mining, metals and resources would have little idea what scandium is.
But Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) is suddenly interested.
It will pay US$14 million ($21 million) to take the Platina project in New South Wales off the hands of junior explorer Platina Resources (ASXGM).

The catalyst for Rio Tinto was the realisation of its scientists at its Sorel-Tracy technology centre in Quebec that it could extract scandium oxide from titanium dioxide slag to monetise its waste.
That led to the development of a 3tpa plant, which can be scaled up to 12tpa going forward. If that sounds tiny, it’s not really.

It made Rio the only scale producer of scandium oxide in North America and one of the largest in the world.
A critical mineral in the United States, Canada, Australia and the European Union, scandium has historically attracted prices of between US$3800-5000/kg and measures total global production not in millions or thousands but in the tens of tonnes.

Used with solid oxide fuel cells and lightweighting alloys to strengthen aluminium in cars, aeroplanes, sporting goods and more, a handful of ASX listed explorers like Sunrise Energy Metals (ASX:SRL) and Ardea Resources (ASX:ARL) could produce scandium oxide as a by-product of nickel and cobalt mines.

But as far as standalone producers, Rio has mostly drained the barrel with its purchase of the Platina deposit, which could double its production profile once open and scale up to 40tpa over its 30-year life.
It begs the question, which other explorers are sitting on deposits of other weird and wonderful specialty metals that, beauty being in the eye of the beholder, could be worth more than the sum of their parts?
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It will be interesting to see what Ardea might release as a Scandium Resource as it seems it might be a sizeable value adding.

GLTAH