PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Rare earths developer Arafura Resources on Friday warned shareholders of a noncash impairment charge of about A$27.7-million on its Nolans project, in the Northern Territory, for the half-year ended December 31.
The anticipated impairment charge resulted from a review of the deferred evaluation costs for the Nolans project, and specifically those incurred in the development of the now superseded hydrochloric acid pre-leach flowsheet.
The flow sheet was now based on sulphuric acid pre-leach and double sulphate precipitation (SAPL/DSP), which Arafura said demonstrated significant operational efficiencies when compared with the previous flow sheet.
Arafura was currently continuing its optimisation work to potentially realise further expenditure improvements for the SAPL/DSP flowsheet.
The company in November last year reduced the capital cost estimates for the Nolans project by A$244-million, to A$1.19-billion, after independent engineering studies identified cost savings.
Arafura is hoping to start production at Nolans in 2019, with production targeted at 20 000 t/y of rare earth oxide equivalent.