Lofdal heavy rare earth project, Namibia
Name of the Project
Lofdal heavy rare earth project.
Location
Namibia.
Project Owner/s
Namibia Critical Metals Inc, and Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation. The latter has the right to earn a 50% interest in the project by funding $20-million in exploration and development expenditures.
Project Description
The Lofdal deposit has the potential for significant production of dysprosium and terbium, two of the most valuable heavy rare-earth elements.
A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) completed in October 2022 has proposed a significantly larger yearly run-of-mine (RoM) and plant throughput of two-million tonnes a year.
The PEA estimates a longer mine life of 16 years than the historical 2014 PEA by mining two subdeposits, Pit 2B and Pit 4, with 13-million tonnes of low-grade stockpile likely to expand the life-of-mine.
Average production is estimated at 2 000 t/y of total rare-earth oxides, including 117 t/y of dysprosium and 17.5 t/y of terbium. Further, the processing flowsheet has been simplified to a direct flotation of the RoM material and expanded to include a hydrometallurgical unit producing a greater than 98% mixed rare-earth oxide as final product instead of xenotime concentrate.
Potential Job Creation
Not stated.
Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at a 5% discount rate, of $632.74-million and an internal rate of return of 34%, with a projected payback of 3.2 years.
Capital Expenditure
$207.08-million, including a 30% contingency.
Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.
Latest Developments
Namibia Critical Metals Inc is proceeding with the next steps of the project, including a prefeasibility study of this extended mining operation over the next few months.
Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
None stated.
Contact Details for Project Information
Namibia Critical Metals, tel +1 902 835 8760 or email info@NamibiaCMI.com.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation