Axel REE Ltd. has reported metallurgical breakthroughs at its Caladão project in Minas Gerais, Brazil, achieving up to 95 per cent gallium extraction alongside 74 per cent scandium extraction.
The independent scoping leach testwork, conducted by Brisbane-based process engineering firm CORE Resources, was carried out on composite samples from the Tiger Creek target within the broader project area.
The program tested batch acid leaching using two distinct chemical systems: a conventional sulphuric acid system and an oxalic acid system.
Sulphuric acid yielded 90 per cent gallium extraction and 70 per cent scandium extraction, while oxalic acid delivered peak extractions of 95 per cent gallium and 74 per cent scandium.
The results mark a major technical leap forward from earlier proof-of-concept trials, which recorded 25 per cent extraction in mid-2025 and 50 per cent in early 2026.
Tiger Creek holds an Inferred mineral resource of 85 million tonnes at 40ppm gallium and 1,050ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO). It forms part of the wider Caladão resource, which totals 439 million tonnes at 38ppm gallium.
Axel REE Managing Director Patience Mpofu noted the importance of unlocking alternative extraction pathways for gallium, a critical metal predominantly produced as a by-product of global alumina refining under tight supply conditions.
“Reaching 95 per cent gallium extraction at Tiger Creek is a real step forward for our metallurgical program,” Mpofu said.
“We also achieved above 90 per cent gallium extraction using two entirely different acid systems, with scandium extraction of up to 74 per cent, so we are not locked into one chemistry at this stage.”
The acid leach program is being progressed as a separate, parallel development pathway to Axel REE’s primary magnesium sulphate in-situ recovery (ISR) development strategy for ionic clay-hosted rare earths.
The company will now focus its next phase of testing on optimising reagent consumption, improving selectivity against iron and aluminium, and recovering metals directly from solution.
