Rimfire Pacific Mining (ASX:RIM) Strengthens Leadership as Scandium Strategy Advances
- Noel Ong
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 11 hours ago
Bronwyn Barnes steps into the Executive Chair role as Rimfire raises $2.3 million and separates its corporate and technical leadership functions.
Rimfire Pacific Mining Limited (ASX: RIM) has moved to strengthen its leadership and funding position as the company continues to advance its scandium portfolio in New South Wales (Figure 1).
The company has appointed experienced mining executive Bronwyn Barnes as Executive Chair from 1 September 2026, alongside a $2.3 million capital raising at $0.008 per share.
Current Chairman Ian McCubbing will move to a Non-Executive Director role, while Managing Director and CEO David Hutton will become Technical Director.
The changes come as Rimfire moves beyond resource definition and exploration into a period where metallurgical studies, additional drilling, funding discussions and potential strategic partnerships are increasingly running alongside the geological work.
That makes the structure of the new leadership team worth noting.
Hutton will continue to lead expanded exploration, resource development and technical studies, including metallurgical and engineering work and preparation towards feasibility study readiness. Barnes, meanwhile, will lead the company's strategic, commercial and funding initiatives.
It creates a clearer separation between progressing the projects technically and building the corporate pathways around them.
Figure 1: Location of Rimfire's Projects (Source: RIM Presentation)
Experience Beyond Exploration
Barnes brings more than three decades of resources-sector experience covering project development, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, government engagement and corporate strategy. She is currently Executive Chair of Indiana Resources Limited (ASX: IDA), Non-Executive Chair of Finder Energy Limited (ASX: FDR) and Non-Executive Chair of Freedom Metals Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ: FDMM).
There is also an interesting thread in her recent corporate history.
Barnes previously served as President and CEO of High Power Exploration (HPX). HPX identifies its major shareholder and technology provider as I-Pulse Inc., the US company founded and chaired by Robert Friedland. During Barnes' time leading HPX, the company was progressing major iron ore and infrastructure developments in Guinea and Liberia, involving project development, corporate strategy and government engagement.
It is useful context rather than a comparison between companies. Rimfire's scandium portfolio is at a very different stage and scale, but Barnes comes into the role having worked in an environment where the corporate, funding and strategic elements of project development sat alongside the technical work.
That experience appears consistent with the role Rimfire has now created for her.
Outgoing Chairman Ian McCubbing said Barnes had a track record of building strategic partnerships, securing funding and delivering commercial outcomes, while Rimfire said her experience covered taking projects from resource definition through technical development and into commercial execution.
Funding Next Stage
The leadership changes have been accompanied by a $2.3 million placement, with 287.5 million new shares to be issued at $0.008 per share.
Barnes and McCubbing have each committed $200,000 to the raising, with other directors and management contributing a further $185,000.
The placement price represents a 27% discount to Rimfire's $0.011 closing price on 31 July 2026 and the five-day VWAP to that date. Placement participants will also receive one free attaching unlisted option for every new share, exercisable at $0.015 and expiring on 31 August 2029, subject to shareholder approval.
The funding will be directed towards ongoing metallurgical work, drilling programs and working capital.
The timing is relevant because Rimfire ended the June quarter with $585,000 in cash and $193,000 held in earn-in bank balances.
The placement therefore provides additional capacity for a work program that was already beginning to expand.
Murga Remains at the Centre - Rimfire's Scandium Exploration
Rimfire's primary focus remains building a critical mass of scandium within the Fifield district of central New South Wales (Figure 2).
The Murga Scandium Deposit currently contains an Inferred Mineral Resource of approximately 11,900 tonnes of scandium oxide.
Figure 2: Fifield project locations showing Rimfire (red blocks) and Rio Tinto (blue), Sunrise Energy Metals (green) and Australia Mines (pink) (Source: RIM ASX Announcement).
During the June quarter, Rimfire reported results from its first 14-day bottle-roll metallurgical tests on low-iron scandium mineralisation from Murga.
The early test work indicated that, if the extraction rate recorded during those tests were maintained over a longer and more commercially realistic period, scandium recoveries of between 60% and 90% could potentially be achieved. Rimfire specifically notes that this remains subject to confirmation through longer-duration testing.
Two Stage 2 bottle-roll tests are now underway over a substantially longer 160–180 day period.
There is also further drilling being prepared across the portfolio. Rimfire has outlined approximately 2,500 metres of air-core drilling at Malamute, around 2,500 metres aimed at expanding Murga and a proposed 5,000-metre program across Kars and other Avondale targets, subject to approvals and the relevant joint-venture processes.
The Commercial Work Has Already Started
The appointment of Barnes also follows another development from the June quarter that sits alongside Rimfire's technical work.
The company engaged UK-based Xcelsior Capital Advisors to assist with potential funding and engagement with strategic partners, OEMs, governments, international financial institutions and potential offtake partners.
Xcelsior is an investment partner of Wogen, a specialist metals and minerals trading group with more than 50 years of experience in critical mineral markets, including scandium.
That mandate provides some context for the leadership changes now being made.
Rimfire still has substantial technical work ahead of it. The longer-duration metallurgical program is underway, resources are targeted for expansion and further drilling is being prepared.
At the same time, the company is beginning to put more resources around the funding, strategic-partner and commercial side of the business.
Barnes' appointment adds another layer to that process.
The Scandium Market Backdrop
The strategic logic behind consolidating scandium ground becomes clearer against the backdrop of how the metal's market actually works. Scandium sits in an unusual category — a market that is tiny in tonnage but disproportionately high in strategic value. Global scandium oxide production has been running at only around 40 tonnes a year, with annual consumption estimated in the range of roughly 15 to 25 tonnes (Figure 3). In a market measured in tens of tonnes, Samso notes that a single credible project can shift the entire supply narrative.
Figure 3: Scandium Market Scale bar chart: 2022 (<40 t) vs 2024 (~40 t) with source notes. (Source: Samso)
That value comes from function rather than volume. Adding a fraction of a percent of scandium to aluminium produces alloys that are lighter, stronger, more weldable and more heat- and corrosion-resistant - properties prized in aerospace, defence and advanced manufacturing -while scandium-bearing ceramics also play a role in solid oxide fuel cells used in clean-energy systems. Scandium appears on the critical minerals lists of Australia, Canada, the European Union and the United States.
Supply, however, is highly concentrated, with China dominating primary production and refining, and most output historically recovered only as a by-product. Samso points to rising Western interest in securing alternative supply, including reported moves by the U.S. Defence Logistics Agency to buy scandium oxide for strategic stockpiles.
Against that picture, New South Wales has emerged as Australia's most concentrated scandium province - described by Samso as the country's scandium hotspot, or the "Kalgoorlie of scandium" - hosting projects spanning exploration through to construction-ready assets, including those of Sunrise Energy Metals, Scandium International Mining and Rimfire.
Samso Concluding Comments
For Rimfire, in my opinion, this may be a transformational change. I have known Browyn Barnes for a few years, and she was on Coffee with Samso several times when she was the Executive Chair for Indiana Resources Limited (see below).
Browyn comes with a lot of accolades in the industry and her trail of success is well captured in the media. I think the future pathway for Rimfire is looking more than interesting. Samso has taken up some shares from the market since the announcement, and I am looking forward to some more compelling news.
David Hutton remains closely involved and moves into a position specifically focused on exploration, resource growth, metallurgy, engineering and technical studies. According to management, Bronwyn Barnes takes responsibility for the corporate, strategic and funding work around those activities.
Meanwhile, Xcelsior has already been mandated to engage with potential funding groups, governments, OEMs, strategic partners and offtake parties.
These are developments occurring while Rimfire continues the work of determining what its scandium portfolio can ultimately become.
The company itself describes the strategy as expanding and upgrading the scandium resource base while progressing the technical, metallurgical and engineering work required for future development, alongside the pursuit of commercial opportunities and strategic partnerships.
The latest announcement puts people and capital behind that stated strategy.
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