Hi, everybody. We can see that there are quite a number of people on, but we will still be a few more minutes. Let's all welcome David a little bit early, which is great because you never know, David, when you're going to have technical issues.
Precisely. That's why I felt best to get in early. There's no point rushing this with a minute to go. We don't need that level of stress in our lives.
Nope. Absolutely not. I am, though, David, slightly stressed, and I'm going to show you why. Unfortunately, you can hear my accent, and we'll talk about America today, but my team, we didn't play very well last night.
Was this the Super Bowl?
No, the World Series, but the Yankees lost game one. It's not the World Series, it's the playoffs. Right, not happy, but anyway, I digress.
I thought you would be happy because you got your, you got your raise, your Aussie Mines raise away, which was, which was awesome.
Yes, thank you very much. For people that, yeah, Australian Mines , we raised capital for them yesterday. Massively overwhelmed with demand, I might say. We'll speak about Australian Mines , we'll speak about Sunrise, I'm sure, but also the Scandium market writ large, which is obviously what's driving everything here. We'll save it again, everyone, for about five minutes' time.
Yeah.
If you don't like Scandium, this is probably not the place for you.
That's exactly right. I think, you know, and for me, I don't, you know, with moderating questions, I don't want to talk about the arbitration or the GPR , any of that sort of stuff, because I think this is about looking forward.
That's correct.
I suspect you and I are on the same page. I think, you know, look, I think the Aussie Mines raising, I know that there's a Brazilian component to it, but they're raising, and you look at the action with Sunrise, and I've just got a sneeze about to happen. I think it's all good. It's just all, and also our price, I mean, participants in our raise now, we're, I think we're just hitting AUD 0.02. So, you know.
Have we? Okay, I'm honestly not watching, but yeah.
I have other things to do.
You got to. That's right.
I think it's just the narrative that the market is waking up to the strategic importance of, A, the strategic importance of Scandium, and B, to find an address globally that offers long-term secure supply.
Yes, definitely. That's a general thematic in any, I would say, tightly tight supply-demand commodity right now, especially in certain jurisdictions. We're seeing all those types of discussions taking place.
Yeah, in terms of this one, obviously, I'll be guided by you, but what I thought, if I, you know, for the new.
David, there are a couple of people joining already, so just, yep.
Yeah, okay.
Okay.
Yeah, I'll just be guided by you.
Yeah, no, this is great. Everybody that can hear us, you know, David and I, we're going to have a conversation. Any questions that you have? I already have gotten a number of questions. You know, feel free to email them, WhatsApp them, or raise your hand. It's very casual, but the point to get across is anything you want to know from David, he's here. That's the most important point. While I have the date, you know, also, what is interesting, it's another unrelated business at all, consumers. When people look at the Scandium market right now, they're looking at, you know, what are the use cases for, you know, incredibly strong alloy, you know, defense, aerospace. Could the actual market for the aerospace and defense in itself grow over the next decade? That'll be an interesting one.
I think the answer to that is yes.
Yeah.
I can let the audience know some of my thoughts around that.
Yeah, because that's a big, I actually heard it when I filmed something with Chemist Warehouse and they spoke about how they grew the category size for nutrition supplements. Now it's not the same industry, but when I say when you have a category that's increasing, I forget the CAGR off the top of my head, you know, circa 15% per annum. The overall pie for everybody gets bigger. That is one of the interesting, I guess, read-throughs from our point of view with Scandium is the actual annual consumption globally growing maybe a little bit bigger than what the forecast estimates are.
I think, Greg, certainly the application, there are lots of known applications now, and I think as the studies continue, people are thinking creatively about how it can be incorporated into, you know, everyday applications, global, you know, decarbonization strategies, all that sort of stuff.
That's right. That's exactly why it made me think about growing the category. That was definitely not the same industry, David, but the same concept, if you will.
That's right. If you want to get into a growth market, it should be selling fragrances to 15 and 16-year-old teenage boys.
To teenage boys. Okay, I've got a daughter that age, but not a son that age.
They all go to Chemist Warehouse for the samples, and they've become incredibly aware of all that sort of stuff, more so than when I was at their age.
Okay, David, I’m maybe dating myself too, but I’m not familiar with that.
We'll have that conversation offline, Greg.
Absolutely, everybody. For sure. If anyone wants to chime in, feel free to.
That's right. That's right.
Okay, everybody, just one more moment here. Okay, everybody, I'm just going to, I will be recording this, so let's start. Okay, everybody, welcome to a 180 Markets Company update, and we are joined today by Rimfire and its Managing Director, David Hutton. With David and I, we've already been chatting a little bit, but for people that are not familiar with Rimfire, we're going to talk about Scandium. What is Scandium? It is one of these commodities that has a very tight supply-demand dynamic, has at this point what we think is a niche use, and David and I will discuss it, strengthening alloys, especially in the aerospace and defense sector. If you look at those sectors, those sectors have certainly been on fire, no pun intended. That was a terrible joke, David, but the point being noted there.
What we wanted to do in all seriousness is to get an update from the company. We raised money through our sister company, Ignite Equity, circa two months ago. The company is performing very, very well, but everything in investing is always about the future. We wanted to understand the upcoming activities because they are very excited. David, enough. David, welcome back.
No, thank you, Greg. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to our audience today.
Great. Hey, David, before we get to Rimfire and the upcoming activities, as I mentioned about Scandium and the market, a lot of people watching are familiar with Scandium, but a lot are not as well. Can you maybe just talk about the commodity, its use cases, and especially in the jurisdiction here in Australia?
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Greg. And welcome to all our audience today. Scandium is a unique mineral in the sense that it has a series of really strategically important properties. You talked about the alloys. In terms of sort of a Scandium 101, Scandium is a white powdery metal, element 21 on the periodic table. It's been known about for some time, and there's certainly a range of applications that have been known about. What sets Scandium apart is there are a series of uses for Scandium that can really be applied to everything from high-tech manufacturing to power generation to, in essence, being at the forefront of future global decarbonization. I look at a couple of examples, and this is really driving in the basis of the demand for Scandium. You talked about the alloys.
When Scandium, Greg, is combined with aluminium to produce a Scandium aluminium alloy, that alloy is comparable to and better than, in a lot of respects, the titanium alloys. It produces a metal that's super strong, super lightweight, corrosion resistant, and it is ideal for incorporation into the manufacture of everything from the latest generation of commercial passenger aircraft into defense, military planes, naval boat building, propellers for submarines, into the construction of missiles, all these sort of things, what we see floating around in space. All of these applications are taking advantage of the strength, the lightweight, the corrosion resistant properties of this aluminium.
For example, and this gets back to this other point about global decarbonization strategies as well, there are some studies that have been shown that if they were to incorporate Scandium aluminium alloys into the construction of, say, a Boeing 737, it will achieve weight gains of around about up to about 10%- 12% of weight gain. You think about it, you're going to be building the most popular commercial jet in the world today, but it's going to have all of the attributes that it currently has, but it's going to be 10%- 12% lighter without losing anything on the strength and the ability to carry passenger side. Therefore, you're going to see fuel savings, you're going to be able to fly the thing further. That's an example where it can be incorporated into the construction of high-tech materials.
Right.
There are a couple of other applications for Scandium, which are increasingly becoming, or people are starting to wake up to it as well. In the world of power generation, we talk about solid oxide fuel cells, you know, which incorporate hydrogen to generate electricity. If you actually incorporate Scandium into the actual solid oxide fuel cell, not only has it got these properties of strength and lightweight and corrosion resistance, it's also incredibly electrically conductive. If you incorporate Scandium into a solid oxide fuel cell, you enhance the performance, you increase the performance of the solid oxide fuel cell as well. Once again, using the Scandium can improve the efficiency of clean future power generation technologies as well.
Right.
Some of the most recent stuff I've read around this is that, you know, we talk about electric vehicles and we talk about the lithium-ion batteries. Some most recent research that is being picked up with now is that as a future competitor to lithium-ion batteries is the sodium-ion batteries. Similarly, if you put Scandium into the sodium-ion battery, it improves the performance of the actual batteries as well. You know, you've got these incredible applications, not only in high-tech manufacturing, but in power generation as well. You know, as the world continues to pursue electric vehicles, electric trucks, all of this, you know, electrification of our vehicle fleet, if you can build vehicles out of super strong lightweight materials, it means that, you know, you could put bigger batteries in, the vehicle's got a bigger range. You know, you've got all these amazing applications.
Right. At the same time, we understand that's the demand case, which is growing. The supply side, especially from certain jurisdictions, is extremely tight. Here in Australia, we're blessed with where you are, along with two other major players. Maybe just talk about the region itself from a Scandium perspective.
Yeah, that's exactly right. Scandium, the supply of Scandium is incredibly constrained, and it's constrained by geopolitics. The U.S., knowing all these wonderful applications, does not produce a single gram of Scandium. It is entirely self-reliant on countries such as China and Russia for its Scandium. In fact, China today produces all of the refined Scandium in the world. You can see right away.
100%.
100%. Yeah, it's produced out of China. That's the problem. We have all these wonderful demands for Scandium, but the uptake, the usage is constrained entirely by the supply of Scandium and the geopolitical risk associated with it. What the world is crying out for, what the Western world is crying out for, is a long-term secure supply, geopolitically risk-free supply of Scandium. The solution to that problem exists in Australia. It's specifically in Australia, in central New South Wales, around the very small town of Fifield, which, for those of our audience who know their geography in New South Wales, is about 75 km west of the regional town of Parks. At Fifield, as you've mentioned, there are effectively four key players, three major players in the Scandium space.
There's Rimfire, and we're joined by Australian Mines, but we have particularly Rio Tinto and their specialty Scandium division, and we also have Sunrise Energy Metals. The reason that these companies are at Fifield, with the population of about 30 on a good day, is that at Fifield there is very unique geology where the host rocks for Scandium have formed, and basically, there is a thickened accumulation of these Scandium host rocks. The Fifield area, with the known Scandium endowment, the unique geology, and the very tight landholding, is in a very unique position. I should also mention with existing resources, it's a known endowment, is in the very unique position to be a strategically important, long-term secure supply of Scandium for the Western world.
Right. David, we're going to jump around here a little bit, but this is an incoming question as well. Given that it is this really small area with, as you said, three primary players, one for Rio Tinto, there's certainly a player, but it's a small part of their overall portfolio. It begs itself to say, would there potentially be a sharing of certain utility or certain resources like water and so forth and things of that nature?
Look, I think so. The way I think of this is I like to use, I spent years working in Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. I like to think of Fifield as the potential Kalgoorlie of Scandium in Australia. By that, I mean the reason Kalgoorlie, the Golden Mile, the Western Goldfields work, it's the sum of all of the players. You have big players, you have small players, you have large deposits, you have small deposits, different grades, all that sort of stuff. Collectively, the Goldfields, Kalgoorlie works as a gold, what we call it in geology terms, a gold camp. Fifield has exactly the same potential to be, what I use that word, the Scandium camp or the Scandium epicenter for the Western world.
The reality is that when you've got players like Sunrise who are well advanced in their processing plans for processing and development, when you've got Sunrise and you've got Rio literally next door to us, we can stand on one side of a fence, that's our ground, the other side of the fence is Rio's ground or Sunrise's ground. You're not going to see four companies build processing plants in such a small area. You're going to build, and I once again, a bit of a hub and spoke model, Greg, you're going to have a central processing plant, and then you're going to have people feeding into that. I think very much there is the potential for cooperation and liaison, yes, going forward.
Right. Also, now, I guess specifically for Rimfire, obviously we want to discuss Rabbit Trap and the upcoming activities, but maybe just Fifield, just talk about the project itself.
Yeah, we have three projects out at Fifield. We have the Fifield project itself, the adjoining Avondale project, and both these projects are in an earn and enjoy venture agreement with our exploration partner, Golden Plains Resources. Our third project, completely separate, is 100% owned, and it's called Rabbit Trap, and that sits north along strike from Avondale. These projects are all contiguous, and they're contiguous, ironically, with Sunrise and Rio Tinto's ground as well, and they all cover these Scandium prospective ultramafic rocks, what we call pyroxenites. What effectively happens is these prospective rocks run through all of our ground, and in fact, when you look at the geology, I would argue that Rimfire by area has the largest Scandium prospective land holding of any of the players out there.
The thing that they have in common is that they have these underlying pyroxenite or ultramafic rocks, which is the source rock for the Scandium. As these rocks weather, you form what we call a laterite profile over the top of them, and the Scandium is effectively concentrated in the laterite profile. If you look at the deposits on Rimfire's ground, we have two deposits at the moment, and we're working on adding to the resource inventory. The Scandium occurs within these near surface or significantly at surface laterite horizons. What we're looking to do is to continually assess these new targets, these new occurrences with the aim of identifying the underlying pyroxenite source rocks. We look for these overlying weathered horizons in which the Scandium accumulates. Fifield and Avondale are characterized by these rock types.
The 100% owned Rabbit Trap project to the north, which is a new project for Rimfire, we have identified a number of drill targets based on magnetic anomalies, which we think are potential lookalikes for the other known Scandium occurrences.
Okay, why don't we continue on there with Rabbit Trap? What are the upcoming activities? There was an announcement, I believe it was in the last couple of days about it, but what should investors be looking out for over the next 30- 60 days?
Yeah, Rabbit Trap's a really exciting acquisition for the company. At Rabbit Trap, there is a known Scandium prospect called Malamute. It's been known of for some time, and Scandium in this laterite horizon has already been drilled, so there's a known Scandium occurrence there. When you look at the broader Rabbit Trap project, we have identified about another three or four separate magnetic anomalies that we believe are indicative of this underlying Scandium source rock. These things have never been drilled, so these are really exciting opportunities, and this is the key point. Rabbit Trap offers known Scandium, but most importantly for Rimfire shareholders, it hosts a number of untested anomalies that at this stage look like they're going to contain Scandium. This is the announcement that you referred to, Greg.
We have just completed, or just recently completed, all of the necessary regulatory approvals process to be able to drill. Once the crops, so we've got wheat and canola growing over there at the moment, once they come off in December, we will take an air core rig into Rabbit Trap, very specifically aimed at putting, for the first ever time, drill holes across these new magnetic anomalies and hopefully confirming that what we're dealing with, these new magnetic anomalies, and these things are quite large, you know, we're not picking one or two of them, they've got, you know, km type strike length to them. What we'll be hoping to do in December with the air core drill rig is confirm that these new untested magnetic anomalies represent new Scandium occurrences on the Rabbit Trap project. If we're successful, then we keep drilling.
Right. We should have activity on this side of the calendar year, with results circa very early 2026, would you say?
Yes, that's right.
Right.
Yeah.
That's great. Also, just bringing it back for a second for the overall Fifield area, one of the things that we're focusing on is, and I think what's really changed a lot for all investors in markets over the last 18 months is focus on truly what could be economical. Now, you said, as you said, you had big land holdings, near surface, there's infrastructure around that area. It really, somebody is going to build something here. This is going to be, it's not just a pie in the sky, is it?
No, I think it's fair to say not anymore, Greg.
Yeah.
I'm not going to comment on who might get there first, but I think it's really important for people to note the growing interest from, in particular, the United States.
Yeah.
What is happening at Fifield, and some of our audience may be aware that Sunrise have just recently attracted interest from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, where that bank has signed a letter of interest with Sunrise to the tune of, looking at my numbers, $67 million U.S., which will be directly credited against their development costs.
Correct.
This is an example where this is not just local companies talking to a local stage. The Fifield Scandium epicenter is now drawing the attention of the U.S. government. We're seeing that the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency has just entered into an arrangement with Rio Tinto to purchase Scandium oxide off Rio Tinto. That may ultimately come out of the Fifield area. These projects are clearly gaining global attention. Rio Tinto and Sunrise Energy Metals are making, from what we can see publicly, lots of very positive noise about their mining processing development. They're getting the backing of large international organizations. I think we will see, you will see development. One of the interesting things is Rimfire Pacific Mining Limited has been working out at Fifield for probably, with an operating presence out there for over 20 years. Very good relationships with the landholders, and the landholders get it.
They understand that there is an opportunity here as well. I think the New South Wales government gets this opportunity as well. There is momentum building around long-term secure supply of Scandium, this Fifield epicenter, and the companies that are operating out there. As I say, the momentum is building. We started to see that in terms of the level of interest, both externally and from shareholders and new investors in these projects.
Yeah, and David, adding to that, through our channel checks, investors, if you see, if you take nothing else away from the call today, is that the amount of interest going into critical minerals from North America into Australia is ravenous. They want long-term supply from a tier one jurisdiction, and these conversations are taking place weekly. Absolutely. David, I want to open it up to Q&A, but before that, any type of last message before the Q&A?
I think that the take-home message for everybody, and I've talked about Rabbit Trap, we've mentioned Fifield and Avondale. The take-home message is that we're very busy. We're super focused on the Scandium. We have news flow coming up between now and the end of the year and stretching into early next year. We talked about the Rabbit Trap drilling. We're working towards new mineral resource estimates for both the Kharajong Scandium prospect at Avondale and working towards further drilling and ultimately conversion of what we call the merger exploration target on the Fifield project as well. Scandium focused, continuing the focus, pursuing aggressive exploration on multiple fronts to generate positive news flow and returns for shareholders.
Absolutely. Okay, everyone, I'm going to open it up. I'll open up the Q&A box here and also anybody that wants to WhatsApp me, you can always do it here. I'll start with the top message. I'm just reading them as they come in here. What commodity does GPR want Rimfire to focus on in the near future?
I probably can't speak specifically for GPR , but at the end of the day, we are working on, take a step back. The Fifield and Avondale projects, it's prospective for a range of projects, prospective for a range of commodities, Scandium being first and foremost, also gold and platinum group elements. I can't speak on behalf of what they're specifically wanting to focus on longer term, other than, you know, we're working with GPR to identify opportunities across the board, whatever I think ultimately makes sense for shareholders and shareholder value.
Great. Next question, you're getting a little bit more technical here. Can you talk about refining? Does it require a massive investment in smelter?
I'm not an engineer or a metallurgist. I'm just a humble geologist, but essentially the extraction of Scandium from the laterite material is, in round terms, a two-step process. The first thing that you have to do is leach the lateritic material. You have some sort of leaching plant, either high pressure acid leach or an atmospheric pressure leach plant, and that basically extracts the Scandium from the laterite and generates what we call a pregnant liquor or puts the Scandium into solution. The back end of that is you have effectively a refinery step, and that's where it gets quite proprietary. For example, Rio Tinto had a proprietary technique that I don't know the details of, but essentially what that backend step does is it then extracts the Scandium from solution and it generates typically a Scandium oxide.
If you want to take the Scandium oxide into Scandium metal, then that is where, as I understand it, you would have some sort of smelting step. My understanding of what's proposed to be constructed out at Fifield, just reading publicly what people like Rio Tinto and Sunrise Energy Metals talk about, is they talk about the leaching step and that second refining step.
Right. For people that don't know, I'm just looking here, the Scandium oxide price compared to the pure price, it could be six, seven times higher. It definitely is something to note for sure.
Yes.
Another question, as I said, I'm just reading it here. How's Rimfire going to process the ore they mine? Is it, as it first requires, it's quite technical here, this question here. Then it requires metallization. I think that you've already touched on this a little bit, David. How's Rimfire considering the process? I think that you've already answered that question, but for whoever answered, I did write that, if you feel free to email us and David could give you a more detailed response, absolutely, or get the right person to do it.
Yeah, just great. Sorry, if I might, just another point on processing. In one second, I'll go back to the Kalgoorlie model where it's quite common for smaller operators to toll treat their product as well. One of the potential commercial opportunities for Rimfire going forward is if there is a central processing facility built, because we're all within very close trucking distance of each other, we don't necessarily have to think we're going to build a full processing plant. It may make sense commercially to dig it up and then transport it to someone else's operation in the local district.
Makes sense. Next question, has GPR restarted their exploration obligations with Rimfire and any kind of timeline updates for these JVs?
We have started working with GPR towards restarting exploration activities. It's a process that we're working through at the moment. When I can say more, I will say more.
Absolutely. Okay, next question. When will the drawer come out for Kharajong?
Very shortly. Yeah, we're sort of, it's like landing a plane. We're heading towards final approach as we speak.
Okay, that's good enough. Does Rimfire have enough cash on hand to explore these new opportunities, or will they need to raise the capital again?
No, we've got from the last capital raising, we've certainly got enough to do the Rabbit Trap drilling, and that'll be fully funded out of existing cash.
Great. Another question. Can you tell us about GPR relationship on a scale of one to ten? Where are you at with it? If someone answered the question, but you know, feel free to elaborate.
I'm not going to put it on a scale of one to ten because whatever I say will be, it'll be wrong. Look, we are working with GPR. We're communicating regularly, and the aim of that is to recommence exploration on the Fifield and Avondale projects.
Yeah, I think it's fair to say that there's definitely a shared economic interest. The next question, water rights, and this is a very relevant question for sure. There are no water rights on your tenement. Can you please talk about how you may overcome this challenge?
Yeah, that's, I probably need to go back into some of the historical records on this. Water is a precious resource in the area, and I know that a number of the other companies are looking at the issue of water at the moment. Certainly from having to drill out there in the middle of winter, it looks like there's never going to be an issue with water. There's a lot of it sitting on the ground. I think, I really can't say a lot more, but I think longer term, that's something that we would have to look into.
Right. Why has the July placement gone below the price? I guess I would just say it's market conditions, but it's higher now, so that's not really as relevant. Next one, how long will it take to get a maiden MRE for Rabbit Trap in place?
It's a hard one to answer because the immediate step is to determine whether there's Scandium up there. I think people should be assured that if we are able to demonstrate that those magnetic anomalies at Rabbit Trap are scandium-bearing, we would move as quickly as possible to advance further drilling.
Okay, everybody, it's almost 1:00 P.M. here now, so about 30 minutes of time. Lots of questions, a lot of interest, so certainly, people are definitely watching the Scandium space, watching Rimfire. David, thank you so much for your time, and everybody, again, if you have any follow-up questions, just send them our way here. David is very easy to get a hold of. David, thank you so much. We're really looking forward to it, and we're looking forward to the next few months, especially at Rabbit Trap.
Excellent. No, thank you for your support, Greg, and thank you for organizing the webinar today.
Great. Bye, everybody.