PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Rare earths developer Greenland Minerals and Energy has decreased the estimated capital cost for its Kvanefjeld multi-element project from $1.53-billion to $810-million as the company considered a staged development option.

Greenland on Tuesday said feasibility studies into the project were well advanced, and had demonstrated Kvanefjeld’s potential to be developed as a long-term, low-cost uranium supply, and a large supplier of both heavy and light rare-earth oxides.

The company was now focusing on the staged development strategy for the project, with initial mine throughput set at three-million tons a year, expanding to six-million tons a year.

This was instead of the 7.2-million-ton-a-year operation suggested by earlier prefeasibility studies.

Greenland has previously said the initial start-up capacity of three-million tons a year, and the later expansion to six-million tons a year, mitigated both market and financing risks.

The project development would consist of two stages, namely a concentrator stage and a refining stage. The concentrator stage, capable of producing three-million tons a year would cost an estimated $450-million, while the refinery, to produce marketable rare-earth elements and uranium products, would cost a further $360-million.

The company was also looking at establishing a dedicated refinery offshore, and investigations were under way into potential locations for a refinery, with discussions advancing with potential partners interested in participating in the establishment of the refinery.

Greenland said on Tuesday that, with the mine and concentrator study component of the feasibility study now completed, the company could finalise the environmental- and social-impact assessment studies, and prepare an application to the Greenland government for an exploitation licence.

Construction was set to start in 2015, with first production scheduled for 2017.