The Western Australian Government has granted RareX Limited (ASX: REE, REEO) Mining Lease M80/648 over its 100% owned Cummins Range Project - a major regulatory milestone that moves the asset beyond the exploration and tenure-risk phase.
The company said a granted mining lease provides the statutory right to develop a mining operation and is widely regarded as the most complex and time-consuming approval to secure in Western Australia, meaning the decision materially reduces regulatory and development risk.
Multi-commodity critical minerals project
Cummins Range is positioned as a multi-commodity critical minerals project, hosting rare earth elements alongside gallium, scandium and apatite-hosted phosphate, which RareX says adds to the project’s strategic relevance within Australia’s critical minerals landscape.
Managing director and CEO James Durrant said securing the lease “materially de-risks” the asset, noting mining approvals are often the longest-lead and highest-risk component of project development, and said the company can now focus “decisively on metallurgy and development planning” to unlock the project’s multi-critical-minerals potential.
With mining tenure secured, RareX said its near-term work program will narrow to metallurgical optimisation, process flowsheet development and value maximisation across multiple mineral streams.
The mining lease provides the foundational approval that allows detailed mine planning, environmental approvals, financing and potential strategic partnership discussions to progress with greater certainty, with remaining approvals primarily relating to how the project is developed and operated rather than whether mining can occur.