Vital Metals Ltd has announced the commencement of mining operations at its Nechalacho rare earths project in Northwest Territories, Canada with the mining fleet mobilising this week. Mining contractor Det’on Cho Nahanni Construction will commence operations at Nechalacho’s North T Zone within days following its mobilisation via the private Nechalacho ice road which is a 110 km long, 1.1 m thick engineered ice road on the Great Slave lake from Dettah, Yellowknife Bay, NWT to the Nechalacho Rare Earth Project on the Hearne Channe lin Chief Drygees Territory.
All plant and equipment, including a TOMRA COM Tertiary XRT 1220/B ore sorter and associated infrastructure, will arrive at site by the end of March in preparation for rare earth production at Nechalacho. Vital Metals’ Managing Director Geoff Atkins said: “We have been progressively achieving all the steps necessary to commence mining and rare earths production at Nechalacho over the past 12 months, and mobilisation of the mining fleet is another important milestone. We are excited to be commencing operations at Nechalacho rare earth project and following our recent $43 million raising, proud to be fully funded to become Canada’s first rare earth producer.” Vital and its subsidiary Cheetah Resources held a ceremony on 20 March 2021 marking the commencement of mobilisation.
Vital’s strategy is to develop Nechalacho in two stages. Stage 1 of the operations focuses on the North T Zone resource and Stage2 will involve the development of the much larger Tardiff deposit. Det’on Cho Nahanni Construction will mine the North T Zone as a small open pit, with material transported to Vital’s ore sorter on site at Nechalacho for sorting. This will create a product suitable for further processing offsite at Vital’s rare earth extraction plant, to be constructed in Saskatoon, which will produce a mixed rare earth carbonate product for sale to separation facilities.
Det’on Cho Nahanni Construction will undertake mining and crushing during a single campaign between March and September 2021, under the control and direction of Cheetah Resources. Mined ore will be stockpiled for use in ore sorting operations which will be undertaken by Cheetah personnel during the summer periods of 2021 to 2023. It is anticipated that a second mining campaign will be required in 2024 to replenish stockpiles.
