Gakara exports first batch of rare earth concentrate, ramps up production
London-listed Rainbow Rare Earths’ Gakara project, in Burundi, has produced and exported its first 25 t batch of high-grade rare earth concentrate.
The commissioning of the gravity processing plant at the mine, which started production in December 2017, has also been completed.
Gakara produced 279 t of concentrate in the quarter ended March 31, following the 75 t produced in December.
Production levels are expected to increase steadily over the rest of this year, as mining and processing methodologies are tested and optimised.
The average grade of concentrate produced was 62% total rare earth oxide. The grades were consistent at between 61% and 64% in the quarter under review.
All run-of-mine (RoM) ore processed during the quarter was sourced from the Gasagwe pit.
Rainbow is developing “highly attractive” additional sources of RoM ore within the Gakara mining licence area in order to reach its target run rate of 5 000 t/y by the end of this year.
These areas are now expected to be in operation ahead of Gashirwe, the originally planned second mining area, owing to their vein prospectivity and speed of development.
The company experienced relatively high production costs of $2 068/t of concentrate, but expects costs to reduce significantly as production rates increase and the element of fixed costs is spread over larger tonnages.
Rainbow reports that rare earth oxide prices strengthened “considerably” during the quarter after dipping towards the end of 2017, with Rainbow’s basket increasing 11% from $12 270/t as at December 31, 2017, to $13 570/ t as at March 31.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation