JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – London-listed junior Galileo Resources’ Glenover rare earths project, in South Africa, would likely also produce phosphates, CEO Colin Bird said on Tuesday.

“Potentially we will produce phosphate in addition to rare earths and our current reviewed planning is directed towards where best to site our own processing infrastructure in order to maximise potential for phosphate export and minimise the overall transport cost of consumables,” he said.

Following a “very positive” preliminary economic assessment (PEA), Galileo had narrowed down its focus to the rare-earth element- (REE-) bearing phosphate-rich breccia resource.

The report indicated that critical high-value REEs comprising neodymium, praseodymium and europium represented more than 28% of the total REEs in the deposit.

The PEA revealed that the potential Limpopo-based openpit mine could be developed with an initial capital investment of $233-million and held the potential upside of recovering phosphate products, ammonium sulphate and scandium from process waste streams.

“The potential by-products of niobium and scandium could be significant in the overall revenue mix; however, more work is required relative to their extraction and cost contribution,” Bird added.

The PEA study further indicated an ore production rate from 2.7-million tonnes of stockpile at 400 000 t/y during the first seven years; thereafter, the mine would report an openpit mine ore production from 7.1-million tonnes at 400 000 t/y and a waste-to-ore mine stripping ratio of 2:1 from the eighth year.

Galileo would continue testwork in Germany and China to optimise the REE recovery processes.

The firm would also continue to examine options for the recovery of phosphate and co-products, the development of saleable value-added fertiliser products for local and global markets and the assessment of the possible recovery of high-value scandium and niobium by-products.

“This strategy is expected to generate a project with a high degree of optionality in terms of products produced; project processing and location, in light of the logistics for the project for consumables; and product shipping,” Bird commented.