Name of the Project
Yangibana rare earths project.

Location
Upper Gascoyne region, Western Australia.

Project Owner/s
ASX-listed Hastings Technology Metals.

Project Description
The project includes the development of five openpit mines, groundwater abstraction, an on-site processing plant, tailings storage facilities, access and haul roads, as well as supporting infrastructure such as accommodation facilities, administration buildings and an airstrip.

The project proposes the construction of a beneficiation and hydrometallurgy processing plant, which will treat rare earths deposits, predominantly monazite, hosting high neodymium and praseodymium contents to produce a mixed rare earths carbonate that will be further refined into individual rare-earth oxides at processing plants overseas.

The one-million-tonne-a-year operation is expected to produce 15 000 t/y of mixed rare earths concentrate and about 8 850 t/y of total rare-earth oxides over 13 years.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an after-tax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of A$549-million and an internal rate of return of 28%, with a payback of 2.6 years.

Capital Expenditure
The project’s cost was revised in March 2019 to $427-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Hastings Technology has reported a 26% upgrade to the life-of-mine (LoM) total rare-earth oxide head grade at its Yangibana project, with the addition of an ore sorter to the process flowsheet.

Hastings has said that, based on the average content of alumina and silica for all Yangibana deposits, 24% of the proposed crusher feed would be rejected by the ore sorters as waste at the expense of only 4% total rare-earth oxide volumes across the LoM schedule.

“These results are enormously satisfying and exceed all our expectations; the introduction of ore sorting has removed waste or very low-grade material to deliver a significant overall improvement in the mine head grade that will be put through the more advanced stages of Yangibana’s process flow sheet,” Hastings COO Andrew Reid has said.

This, in turn, has the potential to reduce Yangibana’s processing operating costs and further enhance the value of the industry high levels of neodymium and praseodymium contained in the orebodies.

The rejection of waste or very low-grade material at the front end of the process has had almost no impact on Yangibana’s LoM, underpinning the potential win-win of adding the ore sorter to the overall process flowsheet, the company has noted.

Hastings will now progress the detailed design for an ore sorting system that can process 100% of the LoM mine feed material.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Wave International (project management and definitive feasibility study lead); Hastings Technology Metals, Widenbar and Associates (geology and resource evaluation); Southern Geoscience (geophysical Interpretation); Snowden Mining Industry Consultants (reserve estimation, mine planning and design, geotechnical); ATC Williams (tailings management); ALS, ANSTO, KYSPY Met, SGS Minerals (pilot plant and metallurgical testwork); Tetra Tech Proteus (process plant and metallurgical testwork, process plant design, as well as utilities and infrastructure); Wave International (infrastructure); Enperitus Radpro, JHI, Bennelongia, Ecoscape (environment); JDA (surface water hydrology); Groundwater Resource Management (groundwater hydrogeology); Trajectory (mine closure cost estimates); Tetra Tech Proteus and Wave International (capital and operating cost); Hastings Technology Metals, Argus Metals International (market analysis); and Qube Logistics (logistics study).

Contact Details for Project Information
Hastings Technology Metals, email info@hastingstechmetals.com.