Heavy Rare Earths Limited – An 8 km Critical Mineral Corridor Emerges at Radium Hill - Should be on your DYOR List.
- Noel Ong
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
Announcement
8km Critical Mineral Corridor Confirmed at Radium Hill – 12 December 2025 (view the announcement)
Heavy Rare Earths Limited (ASX: HRE) has reported encouraging reconnaissance rock chip sampling results from its Radium Hill Project in South Australia’s Curnamona Province (Figure). The work has outlined an extensive, 8 km-long structural corridor associated with the historic Radium Hill uranium mine, highlighting significant enrichment in scandium, yttrium, rare earth elements (REEs), uranium, and vanadium. This announcement reframes Radium Hill as a broader critical minerals opportunity rather than a single-commodity uranium project.
Figure 1: Location of HRE’s project areas and uranium deposits in the Curnamona Province of eastern South Australia. (source: HRE)
The Business of the Heavy Rare Earths Limited: Focus – Projects
Heavy Rare Earths Limited (ASX: HRE) is an Australian uranium and critical minerals explorer with a South Australia–focused project portfolio.
Key projects include:
Radium Hill Project, South Australia
Located in the Curnamona Province, surrounding Australia’s first uranium mine.
Current exploration has defined an ~8 km structurally controlled corridor enriched in uranium, scandium, yttrium, and rare earth elements.
Positioned as a multi-commodity critical minerals opportunity rather than a single-commodity uranium project.
Prospect Hill Uranium Project, South Australia
Provides additional exposure to uranium mineralisation within an established South Australian uranium district.
Forms part of HRE’s broader uranium exploration strategy in the region.
Lake Namba–Billeroo Uranium Project, South Australia
Located within the uranium-rich Curnamona Province.
Complements the Company’s Radium Hill activities by expanding regional exploration coverage.
Prospect Hill Tin Project, South Australia
Adds a tin exploration focus to the portfolio.
Broadens HRE’s commodity exposure beyond uranium and rare earth elements.
Together, these projects provide HRE with a diversified exploration pipeline across uranium and critical minerals, supporting a strategy aimed at unlocking value from historically productive but under-explored terrains.
Highlights – Defining an 8 km Critical Mineral Corridor
The latest reconnaissance program has materially strengthened the geological case for Radium Hill as a multi-commodity critical minerals system.
Rock chip sampling along an 8 km-long structural corridor returned high-grade scandium (up to 959 ppm Sc₂O₃), yttrium (up to 2,236 ppm Y₂O₃), and uranium (up to 0.36% U₃O₈).
Figure 2: Radium Hill project showing proposed Critical Mineral Corridor and high-grade rock samples. (source: HRE)
The corridor extends along strike from the historic Radium Hill uranium mine and is interpreted to follow the axial plane of a regional anticlinal fold.
Significant mineralisation has been confirmed at multiple prospects, including Bristowe’s, Railway, Taylor’s Shaft, and Bonython Hill, with anomalous results recorded up to 5 km from the historic mine.
A lode sample from the Railway Prospect returned 0.36% U₃O₈, 253 ppm Sc₂O₃, and 1.26% TREO, located just over 100 m along strike from the Radium Hill deposit, indicating continuity of mineralisation into HRE’s project area.
Approximately 50% of the interpreted corridor is covered by soil and alluvial material, remaining largely untested by modern exploration methods.
Table 1: Selected U–Sc–Y–REE reconnaissance sampling results, Radium Hill
Leadership Commentary
Chair of the Board, Gabriel Chiappini, commented:
“It’s highly encouraging to receive positive assay results from ongoing groundwork at Radium Hill as our geological model continues to develop. Reinterpretation of aerial geophysical data, collected by HRE in 1H_2025, coupled with intense investigation of historical data, is refining our knowledge of an 8km structural corridor, enriched in a suite of critical minerals, including from the Radium Hill mine.
Given this structural corridor is a geological extension of Australia’s first uranium mine, we anticipated receiving positive uranium samples but are encouraged to find anomalous values for a range of critical minerals.
HRE’s recently refreshed board are excited to accelerate exploration across Radium Hill alongside our other projects, with these results adding further evidence that Radium Hill has the potential to host a sizable critical minerals resource.
We feel there is considerable potential for discovery from a suite of critical minerals in a historical mining camp which has not been tested by a single drillhole in the past 64 years, and where previous mining focussed almost solely on one commodity, uranium.”
About the Project
Radium Hill is Australia’s first uranium mine, which produced approximately 850 tonnes of U₃O₈ between 1954 and 1961 from 954,000 tonnes of ore at 0.12% U₃O₈. Historical records also indicate that around 135 kg of scandium oxide was recovered on a pilot scale from processing residues, an insight that is now highly relevant given current critical mineral demand.
HRE’s recent work integrates modern airborne magnetic and radiometric data with detailed historical reviews (Figure 3), identifying a northeast–southwest trending corridor with strong structural control on mineralisation. The project hosts uranium, scandium, yttrium, and REE mineralisation within gneisses and schists of the Willyama Supergroup, affected by multiple mineralising events.
Figure 3: HRE geologist collecting representative samples near Taylor Shaft. (source: HRE)
Historic workings at Bristowe’s Prospect expose quartz–davidite–ilmenite mineralisation, highlighting the surface expression of the broader U–Sc–Y–REE system developed along the Radium Hill structural corridor. (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Historic working at Bristowe’s Prospect showing quartz-davidite-ilmenite mineralisation. (source: HRE)
Near-term Milestones to Watch
Finalisation of the updated geological model for the Radium Hill Project, incorporating recent reconnaissance sampling results and reinterpreted airborne geophysical data.
Ongoing geological mapping and follow-up surface sampling along the defined Critical Mineral Corridor to better constrain mineralisation controls and continuity (Figure 5).
Target generation across both exposed and covered portions of the corridor, particularly where high-grade scandium, yttrium, and uranium have been identified along strike from the historic mine.
Advancement toward drill-ready targets to test the scale and continuity of the U–Sc–Y–REE mineral system during future exploration programs.
Figure 5: Taylor Shaft looking southwest along the Critical Mineral Corridor. (source: HRE)
Samso Concluding Comments
From Samso’s perspective, the Radium Hill results clearly demonstrate why mineral explorers should think outside the box more often. The trend has always been to follow the leader in terms of the flavour of the market, but at times when you don't have the actual fruits, re-evaluating what else you may have is a very good idea. Historical mining districts can be re-evaluated through a modern critical minerals lens, and this has been done many times over with favourable results. One of the best examples is the discovery of the Pegasus Gold Deposit -Unlocking the Pegasus Gold Discovery: A Million Ounces in a Brownfields Camp.
Radium Hill was once viewed primarily as a uranium operation is now looking like there is a broader mineral system enriched in scandium and rare earth elements. From a corporate viewpoint, this reframing expands the project’s relevance beyond legacy uranium and positions Radium Hill within today’s strategic minerals landscape. Geologically, this makes complete sense when you adopt the mineral system approach. All "geological deposit type" comes from a central kitchen. It comes out as a different dish because you cook it differently.
The identification of an 8 km-long structurally controlled corridor will be the key for HRE. Mineralisation occurring both adjacent to the historic mine and several kilometres along strike suggests a system with meaningful continuity rather than isolated occurrences. With roughly half of this corridor concealed beneath shallow cover, a large portion of the prospective geology remains effectively unexplored using modern techniques, leaving clear scope for further discovery.
The reported surface grades provide additional technical encouragement. Scandium values approaching 1,000 ppm Sc₂O₃ and strong yttrium and TREO values compare favourably with grades from established scandium projects, even at this early stage. While rock chip results are not predictive of resources, they are important indicators when they align with a coherent structural and geological model, as appears to be the case at Radium Hill.
The introduction of Scandium into the mix may be the "Golden Goose" for HRE, as the market for Scandium apparently is booming. A real tightening of supply and the market latching onto the demand vs. supply story will give HRE the additional boost for increasing market value for shareholders.
Figure 6: HRE share price chart as of 31st December 2025. (source: CommSec)
With a market capitalisation of AUD $10M, and a share price chart showing some support for the new story, I think this is a good stock on your watchscreen. Is it a position now? I'm not sure. The market still has a lot more safer bets, so DYOR is key, but I am on the fence for now
Ultimately, Radium Hill remains an early-stage opportunity that will be defined by discoveries of significant mineralisation. The geological logic is sound, the historical context is compelling, and the critical minerals narrative is increasingly relevant.
As we all know, in this form of investing, it will now come to time, money, and lots of luck.
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