The Splinter Rock clay-hosted REE prospect, located northeast of Esperance within the east Albany–Fraser Orogen in Western Australia, has emerged as one of the most scientifically compelling regolith-hosted REE systems in the country (Figure 1). A multidisciplinary study led by CSIRO has produced the first integrated geological, geophysical, mineralogical, and geochemical characterisation of this emerging clay-hosted REE district.

Mount Ridley Mines Limited (ASX: MRD) has declared a maiden Inferred Gallium Mineral Resource Estimate (JORC 2012) of 838.7Mt @ 29.3 ppm Ga (39.5 ppm Ga₂O₃) at a 25 ppm Ga cut-off across three blocks at the Mt Ridley Project, ~55 km NE of Esperance, WA (Figure 1). Mineralisation is shallow, flat-lying and clay/saprolite-hosted, with strong associations to HREE and scandium.