Lynas has taken delivery of a 14-m long, industrial scale dryer at its Mt Weld rare earth operations, in Western Australia.

The use of the dryer is expected to further improve operational efficiency in the production of rare earth concentrate, it said.

“Lynas’ high grade, long life resource at Mt Weld in Western Australia is a key source of competitive advantage and the team is continually investing to enhance operations and ensure sustainable development of the resource,” the company said. “The fired kiln dryer will treat Mt Weld filtered concentrate and replace manual drying of the concentrate in the sun, making the process faster and more cost effective.”

Reducing the moisture levels before shipping creates a number of benefits for the business, including:

• Lower concentrate freight costs;
• Improved materials handling as the need to handle the product multiple times is eliminated; and
• Increased productivity as the use of the dryer will reduce the time spent manually drying the product.

The Mt Weld concentrator is a flotation plant designed to process 240,000 t/y of ore to produce up to 66,000 t/y of concentrate containing 26,500 t of rare earth oxides.

Lynas VP of Upstream, Kam Leung, commented: “The use of the dryer at Mt Weld will provide a number of benefits to the Mt Weld operations, including less handling and lower transport costs. It will also result in an improved product for processing and increase opportunities for team members to focus on other projects.

“We are looking forward to seeing the benefits of reduced moisture levels and to continuing to improve our operations in line with our ongoing commitment to sustainable production.”