That’s why Mont Royal Resources’ reinstatement to ASX trading earlier this month was perfectly timed.

Mont Royal completed a merger with Canada’s Commerce Resources, giving it 100% ownership of the Ashram rare earths-fluorspar project in Quebec.

Mont Royal managing director Nick Holthouse, who has extensive rare earths experience via stints at Meteoric Resources and Hastings Technology Metals, describes Ashram as one of North America’s most unique rare earths assets.

Ashram, which is one of North America’s largest monazite-dominant carbonatite-hosted rare earth deposits, has a resource of 204.3 million tonnes at 1.9% total rare earth oxide (TREO), including 21.3% neodymium and praseodymium oxide and 0.6% terbium and dysprosium oxide, and 4.9% fluorspar.

The contained TREO is on par with Lynas Rare Earths’ operating Mt Weld mine in Western Australia, though the grade is lower.

Updated PEA underway

More than A$50 million has been invested in Ashram, including a preliminary economic assessment (PEA), completed in 2015.

Last week, Mont Royal appointed Altris Engineering as lead engineer for an updated PEA, with the firm to initially focus on a gap analysis to assess previous work and identify key areas required to finalise the study using revised throughputs and an updated project configuration.

The updated PEA is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2026, which will feed into environmental studies and a prefeasibility study.

Metallurgical test work has indicated the project can produce a TREO monazite concentrate grading more than 35%, which gives Mont Royal the option to stage the development of the project.

“Not only the scale of this project is of interest, but the most important thing for me and the thing that really sunk the hook was the fact that the metallurgy works,” Holthouse said during a recent webinar.

“There’s a lot of great headline stories out there in the rare earth space. People talk about really exciting headline TREO grades. They talk about really exciting baskets, but that doesn’t really translate to an economic story.

“And this certainly is. We’ve got a great headline grade, but it translates in that all-important first flow sheet step into a really good quality monazite concentrate.

“We get around that 37% con – that’s really exciting. That’s almost a saleable product in its own right and that gives us options.”

Fluorspar could provide a valuable by-product.

Government support ramping up

To the surprise of most, rare earths have dominated global headlines this year, from US President Donald Trump’s desire to buy Greenland to the US taking a stake in producer MP Materials and setting a floor price to Australia’s recent critical minerals deal with Trump.

Unsurprisingly, Canada is also getting in on the action, with Prime Minister Mark Carney establishing a Major Projects Office to fast-track approvals and bolstered defence spending.

“We are absolutely a key candidate for that sort of support so that is something we’re really going to be diving in on and trying to push as much as we possibly can,” Holthouse said.

“That commitment from government, I think, is going to be a real re-rate for this story and it’s something that we’re focusing very hard on.”

To be closer to the action, Holthouse recently relocated to Montreal from Perth. 

“We’re getting settled into the Montreal groove – it’s a great place to do business, the mining industry is very well received in this part of the world,” he told the company’s annual general meeting this week.

Holthouse was encouraged by recent government meetings in Quebec City and said the process was “tracking a little quicker than we had hoped for”.

Holthouse said the updated PEA would allow engagement with federal and provincial governments to proceed “at a much deeper level”, with infrastructure support a key priority.

Given Ashram’s remoteness in the Nunavik territory of northern Quebec, the key piece of infrastructure Mont Royal needs to advance the project is a 300km access road, estimated to cost C$300-600 million.

Mont Royal is hoping the government will build the road, as it would support multiple critical minerals projects, First Nations groups and even the Canadian military.

The company recently completed a road option study, identifying three potential access routes, which will form the basis of ongoing discussions with governments, as well as local indigenous groups and communities, which have expressed support.

When an optimal route is selected, additional and ongoing design work will be supported by a recent C$2.6 million road research grant from Natural Resources Canada.

Mont Royal chairman Cameron Henry told the AGM the amount of funding that was now available in Canada to help drive the development of new critical minerals supply chains was “second to none”.

“Now is the right time to develop this project,” he told shareholders. “Next year is going to be a big year for Mont Royal.”