Australian Mines Limited has advanced a multi-purpose drilling program at its 100%-owned Flemington Scandium Project in central New South Wales to an execution-ready stage, pending receipt of the required Assessable Prospecting Operation approval from NSW Resources.

The campaign will test areas adjacent to the existing high-grade Mineral Resource Estimate of 6.3 million tonnes at 446 parts per million scandium at a 300 parts per million cut-off, with approximately 98% classified in the Measured and Indicated categories.

The program serves three distinct technical functions. Resource extension drilling will evaluate potential lateral extensions, while dedicated holes will supply representative material for ongoing metallurgical testwork and process development. Additionally, condemnation drilling will assess proposed locations for major project infrastructure, including the processing plant and tailings storage facility, to confirm the absence of shallow economic mineralisation.

Work proceeds alongside a fast-tracked Pre-Feasibility Study for Flemington. While the initial Scoping Study evaluated an annual production case of 60 tonnes of scandium oxide, the current Pre-Feasibility Study assesses a scaled-up scenario of up to 180 tonnes per annum.

“Flemington already hosts one of the world's highest-grade scandium resources. Importantly, the PFS assessment of production scenarios up to 180 tpa is based on the existing Mineral Resource and does not depend on successful resource-extension drilling..”

— Andrew Nesbitt, Managing Director

The multi-faceted program aims to support ongoing engineering and process design as technical evaluations continue across the project area.

Read the full announcement: Flemington Drilling Program to Commence