Heavy Rare Earths Teams Up With ANSTO at Radium Hill

Heavy Rare Earths Teams Up With ANSTO at Radium Hill

Heavy Rare Earths (ASX: HRE) has commenced a collaboration with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Minerals group, targeting a clearer understanding of the mineralogy and leaching characteristics of samples from the company's Radium Hill Critical Minerals Project in South Australia. The work will focus specifically on defining processing pathways for uranium, scandium and rare earth elements across the project's 8 kilometre Critical Minerals Corridor (CMC), a suite of critical minerals that has never been systematically assessed at Radium Hill since the deposit was first identified over a century ago.

A Historic Site With an Untapped Modern Story

The Radium Hill project covers 55 square kilometres of tenure on the southern margin of the Curnamona Province, approximately 90 kilometres southwest of Broken Hill. It sits immediately along strike from the historic Radium Hill Mine, recognised as Australia's first uranium mine, which produced 1.9 million pounds of uranium at a grade of 1,170 ppm U₃O₈ between 1954 and 1961.

During the same period, the historic operation also produced 135 kilograms of scandium oxide (Sc₂O₃) on a pilot scale, according to an ANSTO report referenced in the company's announcement.

Rare earth elements, including yttrium, were reportedly identified at Radium Hill at the time of its discovery in the early 1900s. However, no attempt was made to extract these elements during the mine's main operating period in the 1950s. Historical processing centred narrowly on uranium recovery, using a flotation stage followed by sulphuric acid leaching at Port Pirie, which achieved a 90% extraction rate for uranium.

The behaviour of rare earths and scandium under those processing conditions was not well documented, based on company disclosures.

HRE states it is the first company to explore for critical minerals in the Radium Hill area since the mine closed more than 60 years ago, and its recent surface sampling program has returned notable results across the corridor.

What the Sampling Has Already Revealed

HRE's mapping and sampling program along the CMC has identified high-grade occurrences of multiple critical minerals. The table below summarises key assay highlights reported by the company.

Railway Prospect, positioned just 100 metres along strike from the historic Radium Hill mine, returned grades of uranium, scandium and rare earth oxides within the same sample, pointing to the potential multi-commodity nature of the mineralisation at this location.

HRE also negotiated Mineral Rights at Radium Hill covering all minerals in February 2026, providing the company with exposure to the full critical minerals suite identified across the tenure.

Why ANSTO? Understanding the Value of This Partnership

"HRE is delighted to commence this collaboration with ANSTO Minerals, a world leader in rare earth and critical minerals process development. Radium Hill mine has a fairly unique history as the country's first uranium mine, and our recent findings have built upon the historical data to identify a diverse suite of desirable critical minerals. ANSTO Minerals' expertise and ability to translate this to the development of practical processing options for HRE will build upon their prior work at Radium Hill and will be invaluable to unlock the full value of the uranium, scandium and rare earths."

Jason Barnett, CEO and Managing Director, Heavy Rare Earths

ANSTO is Australia's national nuclear research organisation, delivering research and development, nuclear medicine production and technology solutions across health, industry and environmental sectors. Its Minerals division has a multi-decade track record in rare earth element process development, providing consulting, technology development and pilot-scale processing services to the resources sector.

ANSTO Minerals has previously conducted work specifically at Radium Hill, meaning this collaboration builds on an existing body of knowledge rather than starting from a blank slate. The scope of work agreed with HRE covers:

• Detailed mineralogy analysis of samples collected from the CMC
• Leaching property studies assessing how rare earths, uranium and scandium can practically be extracted
• An additional 100 kilogram sample, collected for concentrate and detailed metallurgical work, to be progressed once initial results are reviewed

"ANSTO is looking forward to collaborating with the team at HRE to better understand the critical mineral potential of the Radium Hill Project and accelerate its development. This collaboration is a great example of ANSTO undertaking applied research and development with Australia's resource sector in the pursuit of realising more value from Australia's resources, increasing national economic resilience and playing our role in the diversification of critical minerals supply chains."

Sateesha Tirumali Seetharam, General Manager, ANSTO Minerals

Understanding Metallurgical Test Work: Why It Matters for Investors

What Is Metallurgical Test Work?

Before any mineral deposit can be developed into a mine or processing operation, companies need to understand not only how much of a mineral is present, but how readily it can be separated from surrounding rock. This is the purpose of metallurgical test work.

At a project like Radium Hill, where the ore hosts uranium, scandium and rare earth elements together, the challenge lies in developing a processing method that can economically separate and recover each target mineral.

Why Does Positive Metallurgical Test Work Matter to Investors?

1. It supports the technical credibility of a project.
2. It allows engineers to design and cost processing facilities with greater confidence.
3. It can help reduce development risk and support future financing discussions.
4. It can directly influence project economics in a Scoping Study or Prefeasibility Study.

Metallurgical results, when favourable, can help transform a geologically interesting project into one with clearer commercial pathways. Furthermore, ANSTO Minerals' background in rare earth element processing, and its prior work at Radium Hill specifically, is a key reason this collaboration is considered relevant to HRE's development timeline.

Glossary of Key Terms

• Leaching: A chemical process that dissolves target minerals from crushed ore, allowing them to be recovered in solution.
• Flotation: A physical separation process used to concentrate minerals ahead of leaching.
• TREO: Total Rare Earth Oxide, the combined weight percentage of all rare earth oxides present in a sample.
• ppm: Parts per million, a unit of concentration used in geochemistry.
• CMC: Critical Minerals Corridor, the 8 kilometre mineralised zone at Radium Hill identified by HRE.
• HREO: Heavy Rare Earth Oxides, a subset of rare earth elements generally considered to carry higher value than light rare earths.

What Comes Next: A Pipeline of Upcoming Milestones

HRE has multiple workstreams progressing in parallel, alongside preparation for a maiden drill program at Radium Hill.

The company is separately evaluating whether to extend the ANSTO collaboration to include its Subron clay-hosted heavy rare earth project near Esperance, Western Australia. Subron has been described by HRE as a high-HREO project, and extending ANSTO's processing expertise to that asset could add a further avenue of technical work across the company's broader portfolio.

The Investment Case: Multiple Critical Minerals Within One Corridor

Several factors differentiate Radium Hill from many early-stage exploration projects.

• First-mover positioning: HRE states it is the first company to explore for critical minerals at Radium Hill since the mine closed over 60 years ago, in an area with documented historical mineralisation.
• Multi-commodity exposure: Uranium, scandium, rare earth elements including yttrium, and vanadium have all been identified within the CMC.
• High-grade surface samples: Assays up to 3,597 ppm U₃O₈, 2,236 ppm Y₂O₃ and 959 ppm Sc₂O₃ point to the geological characteristics of the target zones.
• Historical processing precedent: The adjacent Radium Hill Mine demonstrates that ore from this system has previously been processed, with HRE now working to determine how the broader critical minerals suite can be recovered.
• Processing partner with prior project knowledge: ANSTO Minerals brings decades of rare earth process development experience, including prior work specifically at Radium Hill.
• Regulatory preparation underway: A Radiation Management Plan and PEPR have been submitted as HRE progresses toward its maiden drill program.

Scandium is worth noting for investors less familiar with this market. It commands prices in the tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram of oxide, with demand linked to aerospace alloys and solid oxide fuel cells, yet global production remains limited. Consequently, Radium Hill sits alongside one of the few documented instances of historical scandium production in Australia.

Why Investors Should Watch HRE Closely

HRE is progressing a project with historical production data, recent high-grade surface results and now a formal collaboration with ANSTO Minerals. Multiple technical workstreams, including metallurgical test work and regulatory submissions ahead of a maiden drill program, are advancing concurrently.

The potential extension of the ANSTO partnership to the Subron project would, in addition, create a further development pathway across two geographically separate and mineralogically distinct rare earth assets.

Key takeaway: Heavy Rare Earths teams up with ANSTO at Radium Hill to advance a historically significant uranium and rare earth project through formal metallurgical collaboration. With a maiden drill program in preparation, studies now underway, and potential to extend the partnership to the Subron project, HRE offers investors exposure to a multi-commodity critical minerals story at an early stage of development.

Want to Know More About Heavy Rare Earths and Its Critical Minerals Projects?

Investors looking to explore the full story behind Heavy Rare Earths' Radium Hill Critical Minerals Project and its growing portfolio of assets can access the latest company updates, investor materials and project details directly from the source. Head to the Heavy Rare Earths investor page to learn more about HRE's developing multi-commodity pipeline and what the ANSTO collaboration could mean for the project's path forward.