Although there are numerous companies which have found REs, many...

Although there are numerous companies which have found REs, many of the deposits will never be mined profitably unless there is a substantial increase in prices, because the separation and processing is so expensive, and often costs associated with the remote location of the deposit make the project prohibitively expensive.

The Sybella deposit might prove to be one of the rare (very) profitable ones because of a combination of factors - the sheer size of the deposit, open from surface and cheap to mine, and subject to confirmation of the metallurgy test-work, much cheaper to separate and process with low acid requirements; plus it's ideally located almost on the doorstep of Mt. Isa, a well established major mining centre. As a bonus, Sybella has significant quantities of Dysprosium and Terbium, two of the REs which really are quite rare, especially with the China source unavailable.

So a case could probably be made for RDM's RE deposit being worth the current total market cap of around $24M even before the metallurgy test-work is completed, and if the RE deposit proves to be as valuable as some estimates suggest, $24M could look rather cheap.

However, my main interest in RDM is for its 50% holding in MMA, a company which currently has a market cap of around $17M, and which looks like having one of the biggest silver deposits in Australia. With the silver price expected to increase substantially, the RDM holding in MMA could quite possibly prove to be worth almost as much as RDM's current market cap, once the full extent and value of MMA's deposits becomes clear.

Like many other Aussie investors, I get financial reports and forecasts from a number of other countries, as well as the local fare, and I focus mainly on commodities, especially precious metals. The general consensus from almost every source that I use is that gold is set for a strong bull run, and silver is set to run even stronger.

The BRICS countries, and many others which have applied to join them, seem to be very near to finalising their plans for a new gold-backed currency, and the US dollar as the international reserve currency appears to be nearing its death throes.

My strong belief is that the ASX listed gold and silver stocks are in for a major re-rating in 2024. Gold and silver in the ground are going to become a very valuable asset which is likely to progressively increase in value before it's mined, and if history is anything to go by, explorers and near-startup producers might well run harder than the established producers.

Although there is always an inherent risk in investing in mining stocks, after living through the ups and downs of investing in these stocks for many decades, I think that we are quite possibly now embarking on one of the most exciting precious metals bull markets that I have experienced, and the RDM story is one of the most appealing in the ASX small explorer space.

And of course RDM still has considerable exploration potential (as does MMA).