Mount Ridley (ASX: MRD) reports 91.8% scandium recovery as Sunrise (ASX: SRL) draws conditional US$400m US backing

Cashu Research update benchmarks Mount Ridley's Selectro™ process against Australia's feasibility-stage scandium projects

SYDNEY, Oct. 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cashu Research has published a research update on Mount Ridley Mines Limited (ASX: MRD). It covers the company's proprietary Selectro™ leach process and its scandium re-assay programme at the Grass Patch project in Western Australia.

In the third and final test of its initial Selectro™ programme, reported on 17 September, Mount Ridley extracted 91.8% of the scandium and an average of 84% of the heavy rare earths from its Grass Patch composite. The test ran at low temperature and atmospheric pressure, using half the reagent dose of earlier tests. A standard hydrochloric acid leach on the same material recovered 27.6%.

In bench testing, Selectro™ extracted a higher share of scandium than Australia's two feasibility-stage scandium projects assume their full plants will recover. Those projects are Sunrise Energy Metals' (ASX: SRL) Syerston project near Fifield in central-west New South Wales, and Scandium International Mining's (TSXV: SCY) Nyngan project, also in New South Wales. Selectro™ achieved this from feed roughly 8 to 13 times lower in grade and without an autoclave.

In August, the US Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital announced a US$400 million conditional loan commitment to Sunrise to develop Syerston.

"Governments are now funding processing, not just mining, because separation and refining is where China's control is tightest," said Fox Slotemaker, Lead Analyst at Cashu Research. "Selectro's results so far are at laboratory scale on a single composite. The next milestones are testing on third-party feed and at bulk scale."

The update also covers Mount Ridley's Phase 2 re-assay results, which reported scandium mineralisation up to 8km beyond the current resource boundaries.

The full report is available at research.cashugroup.com/research-reports/mount-ridley-mines-selectro-western-scandium-processing-update.

Disclosure

This research was commissioned and paid for by Mount Ridley Mines Limited. It is general advice only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Cashu Technologies Pty Ltd is a Corporate Authorised Representative (AR No. 001318029) of Adviser Solutions Group Pty Ltd (AFSL 485946).

Media contact
Fox Slotemaker, Cashu Research
fox@cashugroup.com

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Title Mount Ridley (ASX: MRD) Selectro™ scandium recovery benchmarked against Australian scandium projects

Mount Ridley Mines' (ASX: MRD) Selectro™ process extracted 91.8% of scandium in bench testing at low temperature and atmospheric pressure. The table compares it with plant recoveries assumed in feasibility studies for Sunrise Energy Metals' (ASX: SRL) Syerston project and Scandium International Mining's (TSXV: SCY) Nyngan project in New South Wales. Recovery figures are not like-for-like: Selectro™ is bench-scale leach extraction; Syerston and Nyngan are feasibility-study plant recoveries on higher-grade feed. Source: Cashu Research.