Wesfarmers stakes Goldfields ground via private subsidiary in hopes of a major rare earths find

Australia’s biggest conglomerate is quietly on the hunt for rare earth elements in WA’s outback to grow its mining footprint beyond only lithium. Five years on from a failed bid to snare the world’s largest non-Chinese rare earths producer, Wesfarmers is renewing its push to get a foothold in this geopolitically important corner of the minerals market. But its foray the second time around is less overt. Wesfarmers, via a wholly-owned subsidiary, recently pegged land within the Queen Victoria Spring Nature Reserve — located about 250km east of Kalgoorlie and 550km east of the company’s half-owned Mt Holland lithium mine. The corporate goliath will scour two tenements with a combined size of approximately 300sqkm for “rare earth minerals used in the world’s electrification journey”, a Wesfarmers spokeswoman said following queries from The West Australian. Rare earths are a basket of 17 mineral elements used to manufacture wind turbines, electric vehicles, and many pieces of modern weaponry — like precision guided missiles. The military applications mean the United States and its security allies, including Australia, are keen to break China’s overwhelming domination of the rare earths supply chain. Wesfarmers in 2019 had a $1.5 billion buyout offer for the Perth-headquartered Lynas Rare Earths, which currently has a market value of $6.5b, rebuffed. Lynas operates a processing plant on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie and the Mt Weld mine that feeds ore into this facility is located roughly 300km north-west from Wesfarmers’ new tract of greenfields ground. A “large program of (exploration) work” is planned for next year, according to the Wesfarmers spokeswoman, including “continued exploration efforts across the Davyhurst tenements which was announced in late 2023”. In October last year Wesfarmers inked a deal with gold producer Ora Banda Mining to buy a 65 per cent stake in the lithium-prospective Davyhurst land — situated approximately 120km north-west of Kalgoorlie — for $26 million. Wesfarmers can boost its holding to a maximum of 80 per cent by spending $15m on exploration before November 2026. “This will primarily be targeting lithium but also potentially other non-precious metals,” the spokeswoman said. “As we have previously said, (Wesfarmers) is also considering other critical minerals exploration opportunities in WA that contribute to the world’s transition to electrification.” Wesfarmers and Chile’s SQM have an evenly-owned $2.6 billion joint venture — Covalent Lithium — which runs the Mt Holland mine in the Wheatbelt and is building a lithium hydroxide refinery at Kwinana. Mt Holland cranked out its batch of spodumene concentrate late last year and is expected to deliver between 220,000 and 260,000 tonnes this year. The mine’s product is set to be funnelled into the Kwinana refinery from the middle of next year.