PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Rare earths developer Arafura has chosen a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction pathway for its Nolans neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) project in the Northern Territory.
The chosen pathway consists of renewable sources for electrical power combined with large-scale thermal energy storage (TES) to provide a consistent source of renewable thermal energy for steam generation. The TES will be heated from concentrated solar thermal.
“The GHG emissions reduction pathway developed for Nolans demonstrates the viability of Arafura Rare Earths to become a net zero producer of NdPr oxide. NdPr is critical to many of the products necessary to achieve a global net zero future, such as electric vehicles and wind turbines,” said Arafura MD Gavin Lockyer.
“By publicly releasing our GHG emissions reduction pathway for stationary power we are providing our customers, investors and other stakeholders with a better understanding of how we intend to meet our net zero 2050 commitments. As a result, the pathway will help our customers meet their own GHG emissions reduction objectives as well.
“We recognise we will need to address a range of challenges in decarbonising rare earth processing, which is, by its nature, an energy intensive process. Nonetheless, the Arafura team is committed to implementing a practical, cost-efficient pathway to net zero. We will keep a close watch on changes in the price, technology maturity and availability of relevant technologies, such as long-duration energy storage, and update the GHG emissions reduction pathway in future if it is appropriate to do so.”
The company is now working on selecting an independent power producer to partner with.