Name of the Project
Makuutu rare earths project.

Location
Uganda, 120 km east of Kampala.

Project Owner/s
Ionic Rare Earths (IonicRE).

Project Description
A base case scoping study has demonstrated the potential for Makuutu to become a sustainable, long-life operation, supplying critical rare-earth oxide and heavy rare-earth oxide to global markets and generating strong financial returns while delivering significant social and economic benefits for the local communities.

The study proposes openpit mining over an initial 11-year mine life, with the ionic adsorption clay run-of-mine (RoM) fed into a modular heap-leach plant, where the rare-earth oxide (REO) is recovered from the ionic adsorption clay mineralisation using salt desorption to produce a mixed rare-earth carbonate product.

The first module will process 2.5-million tonnes a year RoM and produce about 800 t/y REO equivalent product.

Additional modules will be added in years 2, 4, 6 and 9 to increase the plant throughput up to 12.5-million tonnes by Year 10.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an after-tax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $321-million and an internal rate of return of 38%, with a payback of about five years.

Capital Expenditure
Total capital expenditure is estimated at $301-million.

Preproduction capex, including contingency, is estimated at $89-million for Module 1, including the mining fleet.

The Module 2 expansion in Year 2 is estimated at $40-million.

The expansion from Module 2 to 5, estimated at about $172-million, will be funded from project cash flow.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
IonicRE has received assays from the Phase 3 rotary air blast exploration drill programme at the Makuutu project, indicating positive results.

Clay and saprolite mineralisation intersections above the cutoff grade of 200 parts per million total rare-earth oxide less cerium oxide, consistent with the current mineral resource estimate cutoff, have been achieved in many target areas at notable intervals.

In a positive development for the project, rare-earth element-bearing clay mineralisation has been intersected in between previously targeted areas that indicate a laterite hardcap at surface, the company has noted.

The drilling has shown that the hardcap is buried under more than 1 m of soil in some areas.

These results indicate new areas for follow-up exploration that were previously not tested.

Mineralisation in the regolith, potentially derived from and underlain by rocks outside the mineralised basin, has also been intersected in the rotary air blast drilling.

The company will progress a selection of these samples through salt desorption testwork to confirm the proportion of ionic adsorbed rare-earth content before confirming a plan for further drilling these targets.

“The Phase 3 RAB [rotary air blast] assay results . . . confirm the massive potential of EL00147, having identified immediate extensions to the resource estimate beyond previous radiometric targeting, and additionally, indicate the potential extension of ionic adsorption clay (IAC) mineralisation outside of the basin, which was thought to confine the IAC mineralisation.

"We will now progress initial salt desorption testwork to confirm the metallurgical characteristics of these new mineralisation areas identified, given that some of the mineralisation appears to be derived directly from granitic rocks . . . possibly more consistent with those IAC deposits of southern China,” MD Tim Harrison has said.

The project scale is expected to substantially increase in the future, with these new assays inferring considerable upside at Makuutu, beyond initial estimations, Harrison has clarified.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
None stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
IonRE, tel +61 8 9481 2555.