PERTH (miningweekly.com) − The Foreign Investment Review Board has given the go-ahead for Japan’s Sojitz Corporation and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (Jogmec) to invest in rare-earths miner Lynas.

Lynas executed a binding financing, distribution and availability agreement with Sojitz last month, under which it would distribute 8 500 t/y of rare-earth products into the Japanese markets, over a period of ten years.

Sojitz and Jogmec would also set up a special purpose company to subscribe for $25-million new shares in Lynas, at a price of A$2,12 a share.

Lynas said the remaining condition precedent to the investment by Sojitz, would likely be satisfied during this month.

Lynas is the owner of what it says is the richest known rare-earths deposit in the word. The Mount Weld deposit, in Western Australia, underpins the company’s strategy to create a reliable, fully integrated source of rare-earths supply from the mine through to customers in the global rare-earths industry.

Lynas would concentrate the ore mined at the Mount Weld project in a concentrator plant near the mine. The concentrate would then be shipped to the east coast of Malaysia to the Lynas advanced materials plant.

Phase 1 of the Lynas rare-earths project would produce 11 000 t/y of ore, which would be doubled in Phase 2 to 22 000 t/y of ore, by 2013.