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- Rare earths miner Northern Minerals (NTU) has recommenced research and development testwork at its Browns Range project in WA
- Operations at Browns Range had a forced five-month hiatus during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic due to WA’s strict biosecurity measures
- The company is planning to significantly upscale operations to become a major provider of heavy rare earth oxides
- An extensive exploration program is also planned to upgrade the mineral resource and extend the potential life of mine
- NTU has reduced its debts by more than two-thirds since mid-June and has set aside $5 million for the exploration program
- Plant commissioning and a scoping study are also progressing to completion
- On a tough day for the market, Northern Minerals closed grey, trading for 3.2 cents per share
Rare earths miner Northern Minerals (NTU) has recommenced research and development testwork at its Browns Range project in WA’s Kimberley region.
Back to work
Operations at Browns Range had a forced five-month hiatus during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic due to WA’s strict biosecurity measures.
The plant was placed into care and maintenance, but work has now partially restarted.
The preliminary beneficiation testwork is being undertaken as part of a longer-term strategy to upgrade Browns Range into a commercial, larger scale development.
NTU plans to restart the hydrometallurgical plant testwork in the December quarter as part of the three-year pilot assessment of the scaled-up economic and technical feasibility for the project.
Rarefied air
Northern Minerals remains the only company outside China to have exported a commercial quantity of heavy rare earth minerals.
Aside from the testwork on the project’s hard rock xenotime ore, NTU is planning an extensive exploration program to test emerging prospects and expand known deposits.
The company has set aside $5 million for an estimated 16,500-metre drilling program starting next month and aiming to be complete by mid-2021.
It’s hoped the drilling will expand the Browns Range mineral resource and extend the potential life of mine which — alongside the pilot testwork — will feed into a feasibility study for the project.
Northern Minerals CEO Mark Tory says the project has great potential.
“This significant commitment to exploration in the next 12 months will underpin the company’s ongoing ambition to realise the potential of Browns Range beyond the pilot plant project, which if successful would create significantly greater opportunities for the company, the state and Australia in the global context of producing these critical, strategic minerals within our borders,” Mark said.
“Our exploration team has identified numerous high priority targets, buoyed by the recent discovery at Dazzler that confirmed the prospectivity of the area and are specifically targeting mineralisation associated with the unconformity,” he continued.
“Finding Dazzler lookalikes will be a priority for exploration for the next 12 months, as its grades are up to three times the total Browns Range resource grade. If we can find a few more of these it will help us realise the current strategy to increase mine life to 20-plus years,” Mark concluded.
Next steps
Pending board approval, the company will acquire the electrical equipment required for the commissioning of the plant’s ore sorting infrastructure. All the other required structural and mechanical equipment has already been procured.
NTU is hoping to further refine the plant’s processing capabilities to reduce capital and operating costs.
The company is also working towards producing separated rare earth oxides, rather than the current mixed mineral carbonate produced at the project.
The enhanced processing capability will allow NTU provide an alternative supply chain for heavy rare earth oxides to compete with China.
A scoping study for the oxide extraction is being developed by Florida-based company K-Tech. Work has been slowed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but is still progressing towards completion.
NTU’s CEO is optimistic about the potential impact of the K-Tech extraction process on the Browns Range operation.
“If we can prove-up the economics of downstream separation of our mixed heavy rare earth carbonate to individual oxides it will be an important step in the development of an alternative supply chain for heavy rare earth oxides and will significantly increase both the value of the products we are producing as well as the number of potential end-customers we can target for off-take agreements,” Mark said.
NTU recently strengthened its balance sheet by paying down over two-thirds of its outstanding debts. The company has just $6.1 million in liabilities now, as compared to $19.2 million in mid-June.
Mark Tory says the improved financial position has enhanced the project’s development timeline.
“Northern Minerals’ strengthened balance sheet will enable us to invest in exploration as well as complete our pilot plant testwork program, including the ore sorting work, to be fully informed for the planned commercial feasibility study on the full-scale mining and processing operation,” Mark said.
“Our aim is to further strengthen our balance sheet and be debt free by the end of calendar year 2020,” he added.
On a tough day for the market, Northern Minerals closed grey, trading for 3.2 cents per share.
