PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed rare-earths company Lynas has revised the capital cost estimate for the first phase of its Western Australia rare-earths project upwards to A$339,1-million, from a previous estimate of A$302,7-million.

The company explained that it had to revise the capital cost estimate as the engineering, procurement and construction management fee had increased by A$36,4-million from A$100-million.

The A$339,1-million covered the completion of the Phase 1 of both the concentration plant in Western Australia, as well as the advanced materials plant in Malaysia.

Phase 1 of the Lynas rare-earths project would produce 11 000 t/y of ore, which would be doubled in Phase 2 to 22 000 t/y of ore, by 2013.

Since the restart of the project in November, after a nine month suspension, the company has focused on reviewing the project engineering to reach a point where it could confirm a revised baseline capital cost estimate and schedule.

Lynas said in a statement that the financial capital costs for the Phase 2 expansion project were still under investigation, but were likely to be funded by a debt facility.

The company said that the total cash forecast to start production of Phase 1 of the Lynas rare-earths project was A$407,32-million. At the end of March 31, it had A$417-million in the bank.

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