Tasmania emerges as rare earths hub: MREC metallurgy insights for miners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Tasmania is emerging as a rare earths hub after ABx Group produced a mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) sample from its Deep Leads ionic clay project, signalling potential for low-cost, near-surface extraction similar to Chinese-style deposits. The MREC product consolidates multiple rare earth oxides into a single carbonate stream, a key intermediate for downstream separation into magnet metals such as neodymium and praseodymium. For miners and process engineers, the result points to favourable metallurgy and a clearer pathway to commercial-scale leach and beneficiation flowsheets in Tasmania.
Technical Brief
- Mineralisation occurs at shallow depth, enabling free-dig or minimal blasting and short haul profiles.
- Near-surface geometry supports progressive rehabilitation and low strip ratios compared with hard-rock rare earths.
- Ionic clay style allows ambient-temperature leaching, avoiding high-temperature cracking or complex roasting circuits.
Our Take
Tasmania has had relatively little coverage in our 121 Mining stories, so ABx Group’s Deep Leads project stands out against a corpus that is otherwise dominated by mainland Australian critical minerals plays.
Among the 19 rare earths and critical minerals pieces in our database, most focus on hard-rock deposits, so ionic or clay-hosted mineralisation at Deep Leads would position Tasmania in a different processing and permitting niche to Western Australian projects.
For ABx Group, being one of the few Tasmanian entries in our 280 Projects/Product-tagged pieces suggests early-mover leverage in regional infrastructure and skills, but also a higher burden to demonstrate environmental performance to secure a social licence on the island.
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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