Gold and rubidium place Everest Metals on path to early cashflow and major growth

Everest Metals’ gold projects promise near-term cashflow while its Mt Edon rubidium project has the potential to be truly transformational.

Everest Metals' gold and rubidium projects have it on the road to growth. Pic: Getty Images

• Everest Metals’ Mt Edon project hosts one of the world’s highest grade rubidium resources

• Mt Dimer gold project has potential to deliver near-term cashflows

• Meanwhile, Revere has potential to host a sizeable resource amendable to gravity processing

At first glance, Everest Metals Corporation may not look all that different from its peers in the junior resource space with it actively progressing three projects at various stages of exploration and development.

Look a little closer though and you will understand the differences that make the company stand out, such as having a gold project not far from a development decision and cashflow, another gold project with the potential for a large bulk-scale gold resource with a massively simple gravity processing option and perhaps most impressively, a critical mineral project that boasts one of, if not the, highest grade resources of its kind.

Speaking to Stockhead, Everest Metals Corporation (ASX:EMC) chief operating officer Simon Phillips touched on its projects in Western Australia and what makes them stand out.

“We have two West Australian gold projects – Mt Dimer near Southern Cross and the Revere gold project just north of Meekatharra– and the Mt Edon rubidium project,” he said.

“Mt Dimer has an initial resource of 48,500oz of gold with mining approvals imminent and ore processing treatment negotiations underway, while Revere is very close to its maiden mineral resource.

“The three projects are all at different stages and put us in quite a unique position for both advancement and news flow over the next 12 months.”

Direct Rubidium Extraction process. Pic: Everest Metals Corporation

Rubidium a standout

The standout is the Mt Edon project in the Mid-West region that has yet to capture the attention it deserves despite hosting a world-class resource for a critical mineral seeing increasing demand on a granted mining lease.

Rubidium is recognised as a critical mineral in the US and Japan thanks to its use in military, new energy and high-tech applications in propulsion, night vision equipment, radiation detection, infrared signals, thin batteries, vapour turbines and in ion engines that could power spacecraft.

In communications, it’s used in cloud communications and fibre optics. In the medical field, its uses are in sedatives, tranquilisers and medications for treating epilepsy.

That’s on top of specialty glass, where rubidium enhances its conductivity, lifespan and stability, and even gives fireworks a purple colour.

Equally importantly, it can be used as a replacement for caesium – supplies of which are declining.

“At the moment we've got a resource of 3.6 million tonnes at 0.22% Rb2O, but importantly within that we've got 1.3Mt at 0.33% Rb2O, which also includes some point fours and point fives within that resource, which is in fact all we need to mine if we would even like to supply just 10% of the known rubidium market, as opaque as it is,” Phillips said.

“We'll be drilling there in kind of mid-to-late August with a view to upgrading the inferred resource to the higher confidence indicated resource in pretty short order, so that we're able to report the detailed results of our engineering and scoping studies to date.

“These studies will show the commercial and technical viability of a processing plant with a capacity of 750 to 1,000 tonnes per annum of rubidium chloride.”

Phillips also noted the company had very good technical partners in the CSIRO and Edith Cowan University.

“We've worked with Edith Cowan over the past 15 months to develop a Direct Rubidium Extraction (DRE) and processing process. That's been quite a breakthrough, which we have patented,” he said.

“We have some very strong interest from industrial offtake partners in the US and Japan.

“We'll work through those as we work through upgrading resource, releasing scoping, then pre-feasibility studies and a grant for a pilot plant. We'll look at pilot plant design later this year as we move through to the next stage of the project, which is effectively a standalone project.

Mineralised gold trend at Revere. Pic: Everest Metals Corporation

Gold driver for early cashflow

While Mt Edon will undoubtedly be a major value driver, the company’s Revere and Mt Dimer gold projects are valuable in their own rights.

The 171km2 Revere project sits in the Murchison region along an inferred extension of the Andy Well Greenstone Shear System.

It hosts nuggety coarse gold from the surface with no strip ration along a 2km strike area with work by Everest establishing that gold can be processed using extremely simple – and cost effective – gravity processing.

“Our geological team has outlined a pathway to half a million ounces of gold over the next six months,” Phillips said.

He added that it was a large goldfield with plenty of upside.

The historical Mt Dimer open pit. Pic: Everest Metals Corporation

Mt Dimer is ~120km northeast of Southern Cross and was last mined in the mid 1990s when the gold price was about $500/oz.

It sits on a mining lease and has a resource of 722,000t grading 2.1g/t for 48,500oz of contained gold.

What makes Mt Dimer stand out is that it presents the company with the opportunity to generate near-term cashflows.

“Our pit optimisation metrics, even at $4,500 an ounce gold price, make this a very profitable small mining venture over a 10-month campaign,” Phillips said.

“We've had indications from the WA mining department that our mining approvals there are imminent. We're looking to commence earthworks in Q4 2025.”

Ore from the project will be processed via toll treatment with Phillips adding there were a number of options there.

Mt Dimer also has exploration upside with the company holding an adjacent exploration lease.

“We have got some excellent targets to follow up there because the geological team’s thesis it that the Mt Dimer gold mining areas of Beacon and Everest will actually connect up. I think we're able to do that. We're able to add quite a lot of value to the whole area,” he noted.

Looking ahead, the key milestones for Everest will be defining a maiden gold resource at Revere, securing mining approvals and toll processing agreements at Mt Dimer, a resource upgrade at Mt Edon, and the release of engineering scoping studies as well as pilot plant engineering, scoping and design.

“We've got a pretty full six months coming up,” Phillips said.

“All in all, I think it's pretty compelling value for a circa 30 million market cap company.”

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Everest Metals Corporation is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.

Originally published as Gold and rubidium place Everest Metals on path to early cashflow and major growth