Mount Ridley Mines secures CSIRO funding for scandium downstream research

Mount Ridley Mines (ASX: MRD) has been awarded up to $50,000 in co‑funding from Australia’s national science agency CSIRO for a $104,000 project aimed at developing downstream pathways for scandium from its Grass Patch deposit in Western Australia. The work will be conducted at CSIRO’s Lab22 facility, which specializes in critical minerals and metallic additive manufacturing. Stage 1 will focus on alloy design and additive‑manufacturing research, with a later stage planned to explore industrial 3D‑printing of scandium‑based components.

Scandium is identified as a critical metal for high‑performance alloys used in aerospace, robotics and defence, and global supply remains extremely limited. Grass Patch hosts one of the world’s largest JORC‑inferred scandium resources – about 18,555 tonnes of metal in 367.98 Mt grading 57.2 ppm. Company managing director Allister Caird said, “We have a strong belief that scandium will play a major role in rapidly scaling industries such as aerospace, robotics and defence for which no suitable substitute exists in high‑performance alloy applications.” The partnership is intended to move Mount Ridley up the value chain, potentially creating proprietary alloys, licensing opportunities and strategic partnerships for future export and downstream processing.