OD6 Metals Advances Metallurgical Core Drilling at Splinter Rock - A Rare Earth Story.
- Noel Ong
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Announcement
OD6 Metals Limited (ASX: OD6) has launched a metallurgical diamond core drilling campaign at its 100%-owned Splinter Rock Rare Earth Project in Western Australia (Figure 1). This work is focused on Inside Centre, the deposit that has consistently delivered standout metallurgy and supports near-term development studies.
Figure 1: Splinter Rock Rare Earth Project (source: OD6)
The drilling involves six twinned diamond core holes, generating up to 2.5 tonnes of bulk material. These samples will underpin heap leach optimisation, impurity removal verification, and scaled production of MREC and MREH. Importantly, these products will be used in offtake discussions with global partners.
Key Highlights - Rare Earth Story
Metallurgical Diamond Core Program Underway: Six twinned PQ/HQ diamond core holes targeting Inside Centre AirCore sites to generate 2–2.5 tonnes of bulk core.
Heap Leach Optimisation: Testing duration, kinetics, acid consumption, counter-current configuration, and particle agglomeration.
Impurity Removal Verification: Nanofiltration and ion exchange to deliver low-impurity Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate (MREC) and Hydroxide (MREH).
Bulk High-Quality Product: Targeting >1 kg premium MREC and MREH for customer qualification and offtake discussions.
JORC Resource Upside: Existing Indicated Resource of 119Mt @ 1,632ppm TREO remains open to the NE & SW, offering growth potential.
Strategic Partnerships: Ongoing collaboration with ANSTO and CPC Engineering, guiding testwork and development pathway.
Inside Centre – The Cornerstone Deposit
Inside Centre is the key driver of OD6’s near-term development plans. With consistently strong metallurgy and high recoveries (~79% MagREE, ~80% Nd/Pr), the zone forms the indicated portion of the current resource base. Mineralisation remains open, supporting the opportunity to expand resources through ongoing exploration (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Inside Centre Indicated Resource (red) and twinned drill hole locations (yellow), showing open mineralisation to NE & SW (source: OD6)
Program Overview
The metallurgical core program is focused on supplying bulk material for ANSTO to run scale-up testwork and refine the heap leach flowsheet. Key test campaigns will optimise leach kinetics, acid consumption, and agglomeration techniques while validating nanofiltration and ion exchange steps to remove impurities such as Fe, Al, U, and Th before final precipitation.
Six existing AirCore drill sites (Table) will be twinned with large-diameter PQ/HQ diamond core drilling (63 to 85mm core) to collect ~2–2.5 tonnes of bulk rare earth material for metallurgical scale-up testwork.
Table 1: Metallurgical drill hole locations based on selected AirCore site to be twinned.
OD6, in partnership with CPC and ANSTO, has already demonstrated a multi-stage flowsheet that efficiently produces high-grade MREC/MREH with elevated Nd, Pr, Dy, and Tb — critical components for permanent magnet supply chains (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Indicative process flowsheet – Heap Leach, NF, IX, IR, Product Precipitation, and Chlor-Alkali Facility (source: OD6)
Benchmark payability for these products is typically 70–85% of REO basket value, underscoring the importance of producing clean, saleable product for offtake qualification.
Pathway to Offtake and Financing
The bulk product generated from this program will be dispatched globally for offtake partner engagement, enabling commercial payability assessment and advancing discussions with potential customers. Parallel engagement with government and financiers continues to support the development cycle.
Next Steps
Complete metallurgical core drilling and dispatch samples to ANSTO.
Scale-up heap leach and impurity removal testwork.
Continue CPC’s optioneering study to identify the preferred development pathway based on cost, recovery, and scalability.
Progress discussions with offtake partners and financing stakeholders.
Managing Director Brett Hazelden commented:
“It’s pleasing to have our metallurgical diamond core program underway at Inside Centre, the cornerstone rare earth deposit within Splinter Rock. This key program aims to produce 2 to 2.5 tonnes of representative core that will be sent to ANSTO for heap leach scale-up and impurity-removal optimisation, with the goal of producing >1 kg of Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate (MREC) for customer qualification and offtake progression. OD6 has already produced high-quality MREC (~56% TREO) and MREH (~59% TREO) from our simplified heap leach flowsheet, with this new work to build on our recent flowsheet breakthroughs with ANSTO and the ongoing CPC optioneering study that continues to provide positive outcomes.”
About OD6 Metals
OD6 Metals is focused on developing its clay-hosted rare earths project at Splinter Rock, one of Australia’s largest and highest-grade deposits. With an Indicated Resource of 119Mt and Inferred Resource of 563Mt, Splinter Rock offers long-life potential supported by a heap leach development concept.
The company also holds the Gulf Creek Copper-Zinc VMS Project in NSW, where maiden drilling has confirmed high-grade copper mineralisation below historic workings, opening a new exploration front.
Samso Concluding Comments
The Splinter Rock story continues to build credibility through incremental but meaningful technical progress. It is good to see that there is a degree of seriousness by transitioning to diamond core drilling and scaling up the metallurgical testwork. OD6 is addressing the critical questions of processing, impurity removal, and commercial viability.
The initial validation of the flowsheet has been completed, and the company is now focused on creating samples to engage offtake partners commercially. The broader context of rare earth supply chains, especially those related to magnetic rare earths, highlights the importance of these gradual steps. For me, the reality of the West vs. East storyline looks like its taking shape.
The Chinese Market - Update
My recent discussions with those that are in the chinese market are telling me that there are definite internal pressures brewing amongst all sectors of the Chinese industries. The competition within China is so intense now that companies are looking abroad to increase revenues. Rationalisation of business are happening and it will be interesting to see how the Rare Earth downstream industry will respond or rather react with mounting pressures from the West.
The increasing presence of Chinese news in the middle east will be interesting as this will be where Chinese influences will have the most traction. Having access to raw commodities in Africa is one thing, but creating influences in more value adding markets is another level up.
OD6 Journey
Inside Centre has emerged as the cornerstone of Splinter Rock, and the upside potential to expand resources further strengthens the long-term outlook. With ANSTO and CPC Engineering involved, OD6 is aligning with the right technical partners to advance the project responsibly.
Time is OD6 main headache as it will need capital to sustain the journey. As the market is overshadowed by the gold bull run, OD6 does appear to be the sole survivor that is worth mentioning. This could be its saviour as there are less competition in Australia for critical capital to establish itself as a major concern in the Rare Earth sector.
As always, this is not investment advice, but for investors watching the rare earth space, OD6 is one to follow closely. The story is shifting from proof-of-concept into potential commercial reality.
The Samso Way – Seek the Research
Facts first, context always. Map the geology to the strategy, verify the numbers, and decide only after your own research. The rare earth narrative is complex, but disciplined research helps separate real progress from noise — and OD6’s steady technical milestones at Splinter Rock are a good case study in how investors can follow the data.
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