Rimfire Pacific Mining (ASX: RIM, 'Rimfire' or 'the Company') is pleased to advise that it has commenced a 4,000 metre aircore drilling program at the Murga Scandium Prospect which is located on the Company's Fifield Project approximately 70 kilometres northwest of Parkes within the highly prospective Lachlan Orogen of central NSW.
Commenting on the announcement, Rimfire's Managing Director Mr David Hutton said: 'Rimfire is focused on exploring for critical minerals that are associated with global decarbonisation strategies. Globally, western governments and advanced manufacturers are looking to secure long term supplies of critical minerals such as scandium from stable political jurisdictions, at quantities many times the current annual global production.
Rimfire believes that our Fifield and Avondale Projects offer significant opportunities for these groups both in terms of deposit size and grade. 2024 is shaping up as a pivotal year for Rimfire and its shareholders with multiple programs across a range of critical minerals commencing with aggressive scandium - focussed drilling programs at Murga and Melrose'
Murga Drilling details 4,000 metres of aircore drilling will be undertaken at Murga to determine the extent and continuity of scandium mineralisation. The new drilling program follows reconnaissance aircore drilling undertaken last year by Rimfire which successfully intersected strongly anomalous scandium in multiple drillholes (Refer to Rimfire ASX Announcement dated 3 October 2023);
At Murga scandium occurs within a strongly weathered horizon overlying magnetic ultramafic (pyroxenite) intrusive rocks of the Ordovician-age Murga Intrusive Complex interpreted to be part of a large scale arcuate shaped mafic - ultramafic intrusive complex that has a surface area of approximately 20km-2. There is little or no nickel and / or cobalt anomalism associated with the scandium, which is curious given that other scandium occurrences within the area (i.e., Rimfire's Melrose prospect and Sunrise Energy Metals' adjacent Sunrise nickel cobalt scandium deposit) are all associated with elevated levels of nickel and cobalt. Murga remains largely unexplored for scandium, with most of the previous exploration in the area focussed on testing for gold and platinum mineralisation centred on the Sorpresa Gold Deposit which lies on the eastern margin of the Murga Intrusive Complex.
Shallow auger geochemical sampling undertaken by Rimfire and its then exploration partner - NewGold in 2017 on nominal 500 x 250 metre centres over most of Murga, defined multiple scandium auger geochemical anomalies (defined by a + 50ppm Sc contour), some of which were subject to the 2023 Rimfire reconnaissance aircore drilling.
Building a pipeline of scandium targets
Regionally Murga is one of several critical minerals prospects (i.e. Melrose, Currajong, Forrest View, and Kars) that lie within a +50-kilometre-long belt of volcaniclastics, sediments and mafic - ultramafic intrusive units that form a geologically significant large - scale structure called the 'Fifield Ultramafic Zone'. The majority of the Fifield Ultramafic Zone has not been explored for scandium despite regional magnetic data suggesting that potentially scandium-prospective host rocks occur in multiple locations along the structure. To assist in building a pipeline of additional scandium targets which will underpin scandium exploration in the longer term, Rimfire has also commenced pXRF scanning of historic rock chip and drill chip samples from within the Fifield Ultramafic Zone. Historic samples that are relatively anomalous in scandium will then be submitted to a commercial laboratory for analysis and confirmation.
Scandium Market Significance
The recent purchase of the Owendale Scandium Project (which lies 10 kilometres north of Murga and Melrose) by a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto Ltd for up to $US14M highlights growing market interest in Australian scandium projects. Renamed the 'Burra Project' the acquisition aligns with Rio Tinto's strategic goal to grow in materials essential for the low-carbon transition and as the demand for cleaner, lighter, and more durable materials continues to rise, Rio expect the use of scandium to continue to grow along with this demand (https://www.riotinto.com/en/news/releases/2023/rio-tinto-acquires-high-gradescandium-project-in-australia).
Scandium is included in both Australia's 2023 Critical Minerals List and the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) 2022 List of 50 mineral commodities critical to the economy and national security of both countries. (https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/australias-criticalminerals-list and https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/us-geological-surveyreleases-2022-list-critical-minerals). Incorporation of scandium in materials has environmental benefits across multiple industrial sectors, particularly in decarbonisation of energy. One pathway to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions is to generate electricity using hydrogen or synthetic liquid fuels, which are more efficient than combustion engines. This application currently represents the single largest use for scandium (https://straitsresearch.com/report/scandium-market). A competing demand for scandium (that is increasing) is its usage in the manufacture of highstrength aluminium alloys. When applied as an addition to aluminium alloys, scandium can produce stronger, more corrosion resistant, and more heat tolerant, weldable and 3D printable aluminium products. Aluminium alloys are used extensively in the global transportation industry. Aircraft manufacturers are particularly interested, with the two leading global aircraft manufacturers increasingly working to incorporate scandium aluminium alloys into their future designs and manufacturing processes. Aircraft designers believe use of these alloys can reduce aircraft weights by 15 to 20%. Additionally, the ability to employ weldable structures promises similar cost reduction potential. It's also important to note that the United States is totally dependent on imports of scandium primarily from Europe, China, Japan, and Russia to meet its domestic needs (USGS Scandium Fact Sheet 2022) and as such rising demand for scandium is supply constrained. Rimfire believes that advanced manufacturers are looking to secure long-term supplies of scandium within favourable jurisdictions like Australia before committing to the greater use scandium-alloyed aluminium materials in their products. Rimfire's Fifield and Avondale Projects are ideally positioned to take advantage of the growing demand for scandium and offer significant opportunities both in terms of deposit size and grade.
Contact:
David Hutton Greg
Keane Managing
Tel: +61 417 974 843
About Rimfire
Rimfire Pacific Mining (ASX: RIM, 'Rimfire' or the 'Company') is an ASX-listed Critical Minerals exploration company which is advancing a portfolio of projects within the highly prospective Lachlan Orogen and Broken Hill districts of New South Wales, comprising; The 100% - owned Broken Hill Cobalt Project located immediately west of Broken Hill, NSW and includes; Bald Hill, where Rimfire's recent drilling successfully intersected high-grade cobalt (Co) in sulphide mineralisation - see Rimfire ASX Announcement dated 18 September 2023 Broad zones of highgrade cobalt at Bald Hill, and Railway Extension, which is the interpreted along strike extension to Cobalt Blue Holdings' Railway Cobalt Deposit (COB: ASX). The 100% - owned Valley and Cowal Projects located west of Parkes and Orange in central NSW: The Valley Project - located 35km west of the Northparkes Copper Gold Mine where Evolution Mining (EVN: ASX) has just acquired an 80% interest in the mining operation for up to US$475M - see Evolution Mining ASX Announcement dated 5 December 2023 Acquisition of an 80% interest in Northparkes Copper Gold Mine, and The Cowal Project - located to the east of Evolution's Lake Cowal Copper / Gold mine (EVN: ASX), which includes the newly acquired Porters Mount Project - see Rimfire ASX Announcement dated 11 September 2023 Acquisition of Porters Mount Project
RIMFIRE PACIFIC MINING LIMITED 
