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 has signed a letter of intent with testing, inspection and certification company SGS Canada to start pilot plant testing on a 5 t sample from the Lofdal deposit in the third quarter of this year.
The objective of the test programme is to scale up laboratory flotation tests, including locked-cycle testing, for a higher level of confidence in metallurgy; confirm engineering design criteria for prefeasibility study capital and operating cost estimation; and provide a larger amount of material for hydrometallurgical testing.
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.