Lion Rock Minerals – Advancing the Minta Rutile & Monazite Project in Central Cameroon - Questioning The Technical Info.
- Noel Ong
- 5 days ago
- 7 min read
Announcement
Further High-Grade Rutile Results from Minta Project – 12 December 2025 (view the announcement)
Lion Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX: LRM) has reported further high-grade rutile and heavy mineral (HM) results from its Minta Rutile and Monazite Project, located in central Cameroon (Figure 1). The latest drilling confirms the scale, grade, and consistency of residual and alluvial rutile mineralisation across a vast exploration footprint, while reinforcing strategic alignment with global mineral sands producer Tronox Holdings plc.
Figure 1: Minta Project, located in Cameroon (source: LRM)
The Business of Lion Rock Minerals: Focus – Projects
Lion Rock Minerals is an Australian-listed exploration company focused on rutile, zircon, and rare-earth monazite mineralisation. Its flagship asset, the Minta Project, comprises 18 granted exploration permits and three applications covering approximately 8,800 km² in an under-explored region of Cameroon with historical rutile production and favourable geology for heavy mineral sand systems.
Highlights – High-Grade Rutile Confirms Scale and Value
(Figure 2)
The latest drilling results continue to strengthen the investment case for the Minta Project, with multiple lines of evidence pointing to a large, high-value mineral system:
Residual insitu rutile grades up to 1.8%, with previous results up to 2.2%, confirming consistency across the project area.
Five drill locations recording ≥1.0% total insitu rutile, and 40 locations ≥0.5%, averaging approximately 0.7% insitu rutile.
High-grade HM intercepts, including:
2.81 m at 11.34% HM from surface (residual),
5.67 m at 9.21% HM from surface (residual),
4 m at 12.5% HM from surface (alluvial),
8 m at 11.1% HM from 1 m (alluvial).
Clear identification of central and northeastern Minta regions as primary value drivers, contrasting with lower-value assemblages in the southwest.
Completion of first-pass reconnaissance drilling across ~5,000 km², delivering results over a 3,800 km² footprint, enabling targeted Stage 2 infill drilling.
Figure 2: Insitu rutile results from southern and western locations with Minta Est infill program highlighted (source: LRM).
Leadership Commentary
Lion Rock Chief Executive Officer, Casper Adson, commented:
“The continued strengthening of Tronox’s rare-earth strategy - underpinned by its recent US$400 million debt raise and the conditional support of up to US$600 million from EFA and EXIM - is highly aligned with Lion Rock’s long-term vision for the Minta Project. As a strategic shareholder, Tronox brings globally recognised processing expertise in both mineral sands and critical minerals, and we see increasing convergence between their downstream rareearth ambitions and our emerging rutile–zircon–monazite inventory in Cameroon.
“The latest drilling results across Minta - including insitu rutile grades up to 1.8%, with prior results up to 2.2%, continue to validate the reconnaissance exploration model which has identified the exceptional scale and grade potential of the Minta Project.
“Our strategy remains clear: focus resources on delineating high-value rutile corridors and advancing the monazite-enriched Minta Est zone through targeted infill drilling, detailed mineralogy and in-country analytical capability. The verification of the expansive Yong river basin that is 750m wide and up to 20km long and is highly prospective for alluvial rutile, zircon and monazite mineralisation by our technical team, on a recent site visit, highlights the exciting potential at Minta as we develop both residual and alluvial targets across the Project.
“The establishment of our Yaoundé laboratory will materially accelerate turnaround times, improve data quality and support rapid decision-making as we progress toward defining an economic resource.
“With accelerating field programs and alignment with a globally significant strategic investor, Lion Rock is well positioned to convert the scale of the Minta system into a high-value development pathway. The Company looks forward to delivering continued exploration progress, further assay results and ongoing updates on technical and strategic work streams as we advance one of the largest under-explored rutile and rare-earth provinces globally.”
About the Project
The Minta Project is underlain by kyanite-bearing mica schists, a geological setting favourable for the formation of rutile through the breakdown of titanium-bearing minerals. Deep tropical weathering has released rutile, zircon, and monazite into residual soils and concentrated these minerals within extensive river basins.
At Minta Est, drilling targets both:
Residual soil plateaus hosting very high-grade rutile, zircon, and monazite, and
Alluvial systems, where heavy minerals are naturally concentrated within river channels up to 750 m wide and extending for as much as 20 km.
Independent analysis has confirmed that, subject to resource definition, these alluvial systems are suitable for potential dredge-mining development.
Near-term Milestones to Watch
Ongoing infill drilling at Minta Est targeting rutile, zircon, and monazite.
Continued mineralogical analysis to refine high-grade rutile corridors.
Completion and commissioning of the Yaoundé laboratory, with Heavy Liquid Separation (HLS) scheduled for January 2026.
Progressive reporting of additional rutile and HM assay results.
Samso Concluding Comments
The Minta Rutile and Monazite Project is now at a stage where it is starting to become confusing for me, as I am now potentially seeing what I was doubting in the early part of the story. As a shareholder of the story, the doubt I had was that it is always difficult to confine an alluvial process into a bankable resource. I was hoping that this would be a residual deposit, and it may have the consistency of a bauxite deposit.
What is emerging for me is that this is less the case as I see it now. I am not saying that this is the case, but I am happy that I have reduced my position significantly a couple of months ago.
The upside of the story is that it is definitely very early stage, and the scale is not a given at this stage. I do believe that there is scale, but putting that together is going to be time-consuming.
What is very positive is the alignment with Tronox, which places Lion Rock within a broader global conversation around critical minerals and supply chains. While there is no certainty around future funding outcomes, the strategic relationship itself provides validation of the geological model and mineral assemblage being defined at Minta.
As infill drilling continues and in-country laboratory capacity comes online, the pace of learning should accelerate. From Samso’s perspective, Minta is steadily evolving from a large exploration story into a project with emerging technical and strategic substance.
From a market perspective, and this is told through the eyes of a retail investor, I think the share price in Figure 3 speaks for itself. LRM is a complex beast, with the major shareholders, as they are all seasoned market participants. It is hard to dismiss the potential of LRM as an investment solely because of the major shareholders.
Figure 3: LRM share price chart as of 31st December 2025 (source: CommSec).
The marekt cap (currently AUD $91.91M) has always been an issue for me as it is on the high side for a project at this level of value. As I mentioned, you are amongst the royalty of investors in the stock, so sometimes it is best to just hang in there and hope for the best.
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