TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Namibian Ministry of Mines has renewed the Lofdal rare earth element project's ‘exclusive prospecting licence 3400’ for a further two years, TSX-listed Namibia Rare Earths reported on Monday.
The company had recently filed a National Instrument 43-101-compliant preliminary economic assessment (PEA), concluding that the Lofdal project currently had the potential to produce an average of 1 500 t/y of separated rare earth oxides, which would generate after-tax cumulative cash flow of $259-million.
The project had a calculated net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of $148-million and an internal rate of return of 42%. The PEA had indicated that there was considerable potential to expand the current mineral resource and recommended that additional drilling be carried out to provide for an extended mine life in conjunction with a six-month prefeasibility study programme.