Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Rare earths developer Northern Minerals has announced plans to fast-track its enhancement initiatives at the Browns Range heavy rare earths project, in Western Australia.
The company, at the end of December, unveiled enhancement initiatives, which include a higher exploration budget to extend the life of the potential large-scale project from 11 year to more than 20 years, as well as study downstream processing options with a focus on increasing the suite and value of revenue products.
The miner will look at optimising mining and processing options from learnings of the pilot plant project to date, as well as the potential for new acquisitions in the rare earth sector.
Northern Minerals on Wednesday told shareholders that steady progress continued to be made at the installation of the pilot plant, which was on track for completion by the end of June this year.
The pilot plant is expected to produce 573 000 kg of mixed heavy rare earth carbonate containing terbium and dysprosium as revenue products, over a three-year period.