ASX-listed Osmond Resources has published a scoping study advancing the case for the EU's first rare earths, zircon and titanium mine.

The scoping study for Osmond's Orión project, in Jaén province, Andalucía, Spain, confirms a low capital expenditure requirement of $299-million, an after-tax net present value of $2.31-billion, an internal rate of return of 145% and a payback period of six months.

Osmond believes the Orión project can generate average earnings of $531-million a year and can comprise an owner-operated underground room and pillar mine with minimal surface disturbance. Yearly monazite concentrate production from the project is forecast to contain 2 160 t/y of neodymium and praseodymium oxide, 94 t/y of dysprosium oxide and 24 t/y of terbium oxide.

The project's planned Module 1 alone can cater for 6% of the EU's expected neodymium and praseodymium demand by 2030, 24% of the region's zirconium demand and 8% of its titanium demand.

Orión is poised to supply three of the EU's 17 strategic raw materials and five of its 34 critical raw materials.

Osmond says established technologies for monazite, zircon, rutile and ilmenite recoveries underpin the project's preliminary flowsheet and that there is upside potential that will be investigated in respect of rutile product separation and silica sand sales.

The upside potential from downstream opportunities includes rare earth oxide production, titanium and zirconium metal powder production, hafnium metal production and silicon metal production.

Osmond plans to undertake additional drilling to increase the scale and confidence of the Orión resource, to update the scoping study and to complete the current prefeasibility study- (PFS-) level metallurgical testwork programme. The PFS work is targeted at the Nagrom deposit, particularly for premium-grade zircon recoveries, a near-pure rutile stream and an upgraded monazite concentrate.

The company is also working on applications for various EU and Spain project support schemes.

Osmond also aims to complete a secondary listing of its shares on the Bolsa de Madrid in the short term.