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NEW FRONTIER MINERALS LTD (NFM) - Unlocking Australia's Rare Earth Potential: New Frontier Minerals' Dual-Commodity Strategy
Looking for Australian resource companies positioned to capitalize on the global energy transition? New Frontier Minerals represents a compelling opportunity with its strategic focus on critical minerals essential to clean energy technologies.
Kevin Das, Senior Consultant at New Frontier Minerals, joins ASX Briefs to unveil the company's dual-commodity strategy across two high-potential Australian projects. At Hart's Range in the Northern Territory, they're targeting something truly special – high-value heavy rare earth elements, particularly dysprosium and terbium, which currently command prices of $250/kg and $840/kg respectively. What makes this pursuit particularly significant is that these critical elements are predominantly sourced from China, creating a strategic opportunity for Australian suppliers in global supply chains.
Meanwhile, in what Kevin describes as the "Beverly Hills of Mount Isa," their Northwest Queensland copper project demonstrates a pragmatic approach to resource development. With a current resource of 2.1 million tons at 1.1% copper and a strategic alliance with Austral Resources providing access to the Mount Kelly processing facility, New Frontier has created a potential pathway to production without the massive capital expenditure typically required. This innovative approach, combined with nearly 1,000 square kilometers of highly prospective ground containing 20 additional targets, positions the company for significant exploration upside in one of Australia's premier copper regions.
For those seeking exposure to critical minerals in tier-one jurisdictions with excellent infrastructure, New Frontier Minerals warrants close attention.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Welcome back to ASX Briefs, the podcast where we bring you closer to the leaders shaping Australia's listed companies. And today we're joined by Kevin Das, a Senior Consultant at New Frontier Minerals, a dynamic multi-commodity explorer advancing high-impact projects across Australia, including heavy rare earths and copper.
Kevin, thanks for joining me today and welcome to the ASX Bruce podcast
Kevin Das Guest
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Kevin, for investors that may be unfamiliar with New Frontier Minerals, can you start by giving a brief overview of the company?
Kevin Das Guest
Yeah, I can. New Frontier Minerals, we've uh recently had a rebadge and a new look and the company really has two primary assets. It's a multi-commodity explorer, with both assets here in Australia and the first one being the Harts Range project in the Northern Territory where we're looking for uranium, niobium, heavy rare earth minerals. And then we have our little bit more advanced project, which is in northwest Queensland in the Mount Isa copper belt, and we have a copper resource there, with a very large package of ground surrounded by some very reputable majors exploring for copper.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Now Kevin, congratulations on your recent placement. So can you walk us through the strategic priorities this funding will support, particularly your decision to accelerate drill testing at Hart's Range.
Kevin Das Guest
Yeah, no, look, it was good to get the funding away and the funding will really assist us with the projects and in particular, the Harts Range project. We've made some good advancements in that over the last six months, where we've, in January, flown airborne geophysics and identified about 46 priority targets. So, the team are really out in the field validating those targets and lining them up for drilling and we anticipate a drilling campaign in Q3 to culminate all the exploration work that's been done to date. So, the funding's been quite crucial in terms of the exploration development that it's going to allow us to do at Hart's Range.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and how do you see the company balancing its dual commodity focused on critical minerals like heavy rare earths and copper, given their very different market dynamics and time to market profiles?
Kevin Das Guest
Yeah, it’s a good question. Look I think it actually compliments well. All of those minerals your critical minerals are in vogue and what we've got at Hart's Range are the high-value heavy rare earths and, unlike most exploration companies chasing rare earths, the heavy rare earths are really significant because the economics on the heavies are very different to the lights. They command much higher pricing and they're very rare. In fact, most of the heavy rare has come from China, so there is a limited supply for these heavy rare earths. So that's part of the strategy there at Hart's Range is being there for the heavy rare earths. In addition, there's some healthy niobium grades and there's also some healthy uranium there as well. So, Hart's Range represents a bit of an exploration kind of play. It's blue sky. The real value will be some kind of discovery there and that's what we're really hoping to deliver to our shareholders.
Now the copper is also very exciting. It's a lot more advanced. We have a resource there. It's 2.1 million tons at 1.1% copper. We're in prime real estate of the Mount Isa region and you know, and copper is loved by a lot of people as well and you know, we have a lot of followers and investors, following the story for the, for the copper there, and that that gives us a bit of a development play. And in January this year we signed an MOU with one of our neighbours, Austral Resources, who have the Mount Kelly processing facility, and we're exploring how we can provide feedstock from our Big One resource there to the Mount Kelly Processing Facility to really have a bit of a win-win scenario where they can get higher grade feedstock to feed their mill. But we also have some kind of pathway to production as well with copper there in northwest Queensland.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and just touching on the Hart's Range project, you've had impressive assay results with high concentrations of dysprosium and terbium. So how does this early-stage data tell you about the long-term potential?
Kevin Das Guest
Yeah, look, that's the key right there. The dysprosium and terbium are the main reasons. One of the main reasons I should say we're there at Hart's Range. Obviously, there's niobium and uranium and other minerals. There's even some copper there as well, but the dysprosium and terbium are very rare, in the sense you can only really get them from China and there's not a lot of exposure on the ASX for dysprosium, terbium.
Dysprosium sells for around $2.40, $2.50 US a kilogram this is Shanghai Metals terbiums $820, $840 US a kilogram and so they're very high value rare earths and, from an economic point of view, make the basket price very attractive. Hence the reason why we're kind of exploring Hart's Range for them. One of the former companies I worked for back in 2010 was a company called Northern Minerals and they also had what's called the Browns Range Heavy Rare Earth Deposit, which is also very high in dysprosium, terbium, and these are very key rare earth elements that are very hard to come by in economic quantity that are very hard to come by in economic quantity. So the presence of the dysprosium, terbium at Hart's range really make this project very exciting from an exploration point of view.
Andrew MusgraveHost
Okay, and you touched on your alliance with Austral Resources, which is a defining feature of the NWQ copper project strategy. So, what advantages does the Mount Kelly processing plant provide in fast tracking production at Big One?
Kevin Das Guest
Essentially if we can have some kind of scenario where we can process ore from our Big One deposit through Mount Kelly. What it means for us is that we don't need to build a $100 million processing facility. It's a really good scenario to have a mill nearby, which makes the economics of the project very attractive. So, they're all things that we're looking. We had the team up at site about three weeks ago. They took about 200 kilograms of material from some of the stockpiles we have at the Big One and they sent them off to the labs to get tested, and we're doing a bunch of work at the moment just to look at some of the recoveries and the grades to see the viability of, you know, putting our oxide material through their oxide plant, which I think there's some really good scenarios.
In addition to that, we have just under 1,000 square kilometres of highly prospective ground there. There's another 20 targets there that are yet to be drilled and so there's a lot of exploration upside there. And, as I previously mentioned, you know the Mount Isa region is world class and you know I kind of you know call that bit of ground there the Beverly Hills of the Mount Isa district, because it's just prime real estate and very tightly held and really hard to come by nowadays. So, I think there's some really good synergies there with this MOU with Austral, where combined, just you've got a larger footprint, you've got a processing facility and a lot more exploration mining synergies that can come out of this joint venture.
Andrew Musgrave Host
And are you looking to do further drilling at Big One or bring nearby satellite deposits into the mix?
Kevin Das Guest
Yeah, that's a really good question. That's something we're just reviewing at the moment and we really want to go after the low-hanging fruit where we can get as much bang for buck. And is it a case of drilling the Big One out, deeper and bigger? And there's also, you know, potential for sulphide mineralization. Or do we chase some of the shallow oxide material that we're kind of seeing over five of the five or six of the immediate prospects there that are showing a lot of promise? So, there's definitely some drilling we would like to do, but it just really needs to make sense on how we can really add value to the story there and really support and tie in with what we're doing with Austral as well.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and with both copper and rare earths, they are critical to the global energy transition. So how is the company positioning itself as a long-term supplier of critical minerals to clean energy markets?
Kevin Das Guest
Yeah, look, I think with the heavy rare earths, as you mentioned, or both commodities are critical for the electric vehicle transition there and the clean energy transition, and so for us, if we can make a discovery of these heavy rare earths, we kind of then put ourselves in a very unique category as being one of the very few on the ASX that have exposure to dysprosium and terbium. As previously mentioned, the primary place you get dysprosium terbium from, China, in particular the south China ionic clays, which is a big source of dysprosium, terbium. In Australia there isn't a lot of companies that have exposure to that. Northern Minerals is probably one of the few companies that does, and so we would like to be another player that can kind of enter that space of, in particular, the heavy rare earths, which, which I think is, will be very, very exciting if we can identify a resource there.
The copper is also a great story as well. Again, the electrification is a really good thematic and you need copper to do that and we're kind of in one of the prime regions or tier one jurisdiction for copper. So again, I think our projects are really well positioned, you know, from a jurisdiction point of view, both in Australia again big tick. Having access, really good infrastructure has provided a lot of advantages. And I think the other thing just to note is, as an exploration junior, these are kind of our two primary projects, and I think from a financing and just a resources point of view we're not trying to bite off too much. Sometimes you can have four, five projects and kind of do all of those and be really stretched. But I think these two projects, if we can get one of them to come off, let alone both of them, we'll really give shareholders the best chance of this share price appreciating.
Andrew Musgrave Host
All right, Kevin. Well, it's been great to chat today, so thanks very much for your time and we look forward to the next update from New Frontier Minerals in the upcoming months.
Kevin Das Guest
No, thank you very much for having me.
Andrew Musgrave Host
That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.