JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Arafura Resources has announced that its Nolans neodymium-praseodymium project has been recommended to the Northern Territory government for environmental approval, subject to operational control conditions.
This followed the completion of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) by the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority (NT EPA), which had issued its EIA report and its recommendations to state’s ministers for environment and natural resources and primary industry and resources for their consideration.
“Concurrent with the release of this report to the Northern Territory government, the report is also issued to the Australian government’s Department of the Environment and Energy for its assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. It is expected that this part of the assessment will be completed in February 2018,” the rare-earths developer said in an update to shareholders on Friday.
The project’s final environmental approval by the state government is expected during the current quarter.
The completion of the NT EPA’s assessment is a key milestone in enabling Nolans’ construction to move forward and marks an advancement towards a final investment decision,” MD Gavin Lockyer concluded.