West Cobar Metals kicks off scandium drilling program at Salazar in WA’s south

• Approximately 3,000m of AC drilling underway at Salazar
• First dedicated scandium drilling campaign at WA project
• Testing for higher-grade zones and extensions to known mineralisation
• Drilling expected to take two to three weeks, with assay results to follow

West Cobar Metals (ASX: WC1) has commenced a drilling program testing for high-grade scandium at the Salazar project near Esperance in WA’s far south.

Wallis Drilling is undertaking the aircore program of approximately 3,000m, targeting higher-grade scandium zones within shallow, clay-rich saprolite and testing extensions to known mineralisation.

MD, Matt Szwedzicki, said the program complements ongoing metallurgical testwork investigating scandium and rare earth element extraction.

“Drilling is now underway in our first dedicated scandium campaign at Salazar. We are targeting higher- grade zones and extensions to known mineralisation to help guide the project’s next stage,” he said.

“With drilling and metallurgical testwork progressing in parallel, we look forward to updating shareholders as results become available.”

Earlier this week West Cobar reported that it had obtained positive leach testing results from a program focused on scandium at the Salazar critical minerals project.

The company has commenced a significant metallurgical testwork program with ANSTO to evaluate sulphuric acid leaching of Salazar scandium mineralisation.

Previous testwork, indicates that sulphuric acid is effective in extracting scandium from the Salazar material tested.

Early time-based observations from current works also suggest that scandium leaching reaches a relative plateau after approximately six hours under the conditions assessed. This may indicate an opportunity to limit extended leach residence times, subject to confirmation through the broader test program.

The ANSTO program will now examine the effect of leach conditions and feed size on scandium extraction, acid consumption and impurity dissolution. Understanding these relationships is important for optimising scandium recovery while managing dissolution of gangue components and the requirements of downstream purification.

WC1 is down 7.69% to 1.2¢. Mkt cap $5.406M.

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