Victory Metals’ North Stanmore Heavy Rare Earth Element (“HREE”) Project is located within the Company’s 100%-owned North Stanmore Project in Western Australia, approximately 6km north of Cue, with sealed road access via the Great Northern Highway.
In March 2025, Victory released its Scoping Study for the North Stanmore HREE Project, highlighting a unique opportunity to establish a long-term, low-cost supply of critical minerals essential for high-growth industries such as renewable energy, electric vehicles and defence. The Scoping Study confirmed North Stanmore’s significant economic and environmental advantages over conventional rare earth projects.
Key highlights of the Scoping Study included:
- Robust estimated net present value (NPV) across multiple pricing scenarios:
- AUD $1,212m Post Tax 52% IRR (based on Adamas Intelligence downwards forecast)
- AUD $711m Post Tax 36% IRR (based on Asian Metal Market spot price of NdPr USD $62kg)
- AUD $868m Post Tax 41% IRR (based on Adamas Intelligence 10-year historical NdPr USD $82kg)
- 8Mtpa throughput due to shallow nature of the mineralisation with favourable weather conditions
- 31-year mine life with 72% of the resource being in the Indicated category and 28% being in the Inferred category
- CAPEX of approximately AUD $337m including a 30% contingency
- Low OPEX of approximately AUD $25.5 per ROM tonne over the life of mine (LOM)
- Victory set to produce a very high value and quality heavy rare earth enriched product
- Outstanding metallurgical recovery of 94% for magnet rare earth oxide (MREO)
Completion of the Scoping Study marked a key step in Victory’s strategy to advance North Stanmore towards production.
The January 2025 MRE of 247.5Mt, including 176.5Mt (72%) in the indicated category, represents the largest Indicated Mineral Resource among Australian HREE-dominant deposits. The MRE has been estimated within the boundary of 10 tenements: E20/0544, E20/0871, E20/971, E20/1016, E20/2468, E20/2469, P20/0543, P20/2007, P20/2153, and P20/2403.
Key highlights of the January 2025 MRE include:
- Indicated JORC category resource upgraded to 71% of the overall MRE, which is expected to support the advanced Scoping Study during Q1 2025
- Overall MRE upgraded to 247.5Mt @ 520 ppm TREO (Indicated and Inferred)
- High-grade near-surface zone of 53Mt at 1,012ppm TREO
- Consistently high HREO to TREO ratios of 38% in the Indicated category
- Scandium resource increased substantially with scandium set to see increased demand
- Significant strike length of 13.5km confirms North Stanmore as one of the largest contiguous heavy rare earth-dominated clay-hosted deposits globally
The January 2025 updated MRE (refer Table 1) is stated at an economic cut-off grade of ≥330ppm TREO plus Scandium Oxide, with no top cuts (as no extreme values that could bias the estimation were apparent). Table 1 is the summary report for the grouped REO and Table 2 outlines the higher-grade domain and associated classification.
Table 1: North Stanmore January 2025 MRE (≥ 330ppm TREO cut-off grade)
Numbers are rounded to reflect they are an estimate. Numbers may not sum due to rounding.
Table 2: North Stanmore January 2025 MRE HREO within the HGMIN domain (≥330ppm TREO + Sc2O3 cut-off grade)
Numbers are rounded to reflect they are an estimate. Numbers may not sum due to rounding.