PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Peak Resources on Thursday flagged a possible increase in production for its Ngualla rare earth projects and for its Teesside refinery.
The company previously announced that it would work to update a bankable feasibility study (BFS) for the project to update transport logistics, mine planning, renewable energy solutions, early works and project execution planning, updated pricing assumptions for producing neodymium and praseodymium oxide and other separated rare earth products, tailings storage evaluation and flotation process optimisation.
However, Peak told shareholders that in light of the rapid growth in rare earth demand, the company has identified an opportunity to further optimise the integrated Ngualla-Teesside project by expanding production.
The updated BFS will reflect a nameplate annual mill throughput of 800 000 t/y, which would deliver a 28% increase in the production anticipated in an optimised BFS to 624 000 t/y, and an increase in annual neodymium and praseodymium production to between 3 000 t to 3 500 t, from the 2 810 t/y of neodymium and praseodymium considered in the optimised BFS.
It is expected that the cost of the BFS update will increase from A$1.7-million to A$4-million and its completion date will move from the end of February 2022 to June 2022.
Under the revised timeline a final investment decision is targeted before the end of December 2022.