Victory Metals (ASX: VTM) has announced a major upgrade in Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) concentrate grade at its North Stanmore project.
First-pass sighter flotation has delivered a peak concentrate grade of 5.9% TREO, a substantial 48x increase from the initial 1,251 ppm head grade to 59,467 ppm.
The processing achieved an 81.5% rougher recovery and an 83.6% cleaner stage recovery for TREO.
Notably, the flotation circuit is simple and does not require front-end desliming.
It also successfully rejected over 95% of the ore mass upstream, with a planned flotation throughput of approximately 5 tph.
This development potentially paves a lower-cost, higher-grade path to market for the company's rare earth elements.
Enhanced Heavy REE Profile
The concentrate achieved a critical heavy rare earth oxide (HREO) to TREO ratio of 38%.
This ratio supports a premium heavy rare earth basket, including elements like dysprosium, terbium, and yttrium.
Importantly, more than 99% of yttrium, along with other heavy REEs, is hosted in discrete secondary phosphates, specifically rhabdophane and churchite.
The ability to reject over 95% of the ore mass upstream represents a significant gain in capital efficiency.
This substantial reduction in material processing enables a considerably smaller plant size, which is expected to lead to lower CAPEX and OPEX for the upcoming Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS).
Victory Metals is targeting the release of the PFS in Q2 2026.
Outlook Positive Pending PFS
Victory Metals' latest flotation results signal a promising, potentially more capital-efficient production route for its North Stanmore project.
This is evidenced by a significant TREO grade upgrade and substantial ore mass rejection.
Investors will look to the Q2 2026 PFS for confirmation of these projected CAPEX/OPEX reductions and an accelerated path to market.
