Vital Metals Limited announced results from metallurgical testwork completed on samples from the Tardiff Zone 1 deposit, part of its Nechalacho rare earths project in Northwest Territories, Canada have exceeded the Company's expectations. A 550kg sample from Tardiff Zone 1 underwent testwork to a scoping study level using a similar flowsheet to that which Vital is using to produce a rare earth concentrate from the North T deposit at Nechalacho -sorting and gravity separation with the addition of a flotation stage. This three-stage process produced a final concentrate with a total rare earth oxide (TREO) of 39.9% at a recovery rate of 53.7%.

Final concentrate grades of 39.9% and exceptionally low mass pull of 3.3% will allow Vital to capitalise on a smaller, lower CAPEX hydrometallurgical plant. Final concentrate grade for neodymium oxide (Nd2O3) was 7.07% at an overall recovery of 51.4% . Testwork was undertaken by Lakefield SGS in Canada and managed by Independent Metallurgy Operations (IMO) in Perth WA in consultation with Vital Metals' COO Tony Hadley, analysing the overall circuit performance of the: Stage 1: Sorting Stage 2: Gravity Separation by Dense Media Separation on coarse material and Shaking Table on finer material.

Stage 3: Flotation using a multistage rougher, cleaner flotation circuit to generate a final concentrate suitable to be fed into a downstream hydrometallurgical circuit.