North Stanmore expansion: heritage clearance implications for mine planners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Heritage survey clearance of a previously registered site at Victory Metals’ North Stanmore rare earths project in Western Australia opens additional ground for drilling and resource definition. The project, centred on clay-hosted rare earth mineralisation near Cue in the Murchison region, can now extend exploration beyond the original cleared envelope. For geotechnical and mine planners, the expanded footprint enables more flexible pit or in-situ leach layouts and better assessment of overburden characteristics and haul road alignments.
Technical Brief
- Heritage survey addressed a previously registered cultural site directly overlying Victory Metals’ target area.
- Clearance allows drill pattern density to be increased on ground that was formerly excluded from access.
- Additional drill lines can now be oriented to better intersect the clay-hosted rare earth horizons.
- Expanded access simplifies positioning of geotechnical and hydrological test holes for mine design inputs.
- Heritage outcome reduces risk of late-stage pit redesign driven by cultural exclusion zones.
- For similar clay-hosted REE projects, early heritage resolution can materially compress pre-feasibility timelines.
Our Take
WA greenfield and expansion ‘Projects’ pieces make up a noticeable share of our 770 Mining stories, signalling that approvals and heritage clearances are increasingly the pacing item for project timelines rather than drilling or funding in the state.
For smaller developers like Victory Metals, clearing heritage at a project such as North Stanmore in WA typically unlocks more aggressive resource definition and mine planning, which can materially improve valuations ahead of any future JV or offtake negotiations.
In our Projects-tagged coverage for Australia, delays linked to cultural heritage have been particularly visible in iron ore and battery metals; a smoother path at North Stanmore suggests Victory Metals may face less schedule risk than peers caught in more contentious approvals processes.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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