Tag Archives: monazite

CrossBoundary wind, solar, battery solution set for Rio QMM ilmenite operation

26th July 2021Energy minerals, Environmental, Mine operation news, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Sustainable miningAndriatongarivo Tojonirina Andrisoa, battery backup, CrossBoundary Energy, ilmenite, lithium-ion battery energy storage, Madagascar, monazite, Ny Fanja Rakotomalala, Port Ehoala Park, Rio Tinto, Rio Tinto Fer et Titane, Sinead Kaufman, solar power, wind energy, zirsilDaniel Gleeson

Rio Tinto has signed a power purchasing agreement for a new renewable energy plant to power the operations of its QMM ilmenite mine in Fort Dauphin, Southern Madagascar.

This project, which uses solar and wind energy, will significantly contribute towards Rio Tinto’s operations in Madagascar achieving its carbon neutral objective by 2023, it said. It is part of a broader initiative to reduce the ilmenite mine’s environmental footprint which includes programs that focus on emissions reduction, waste and water management, carbon sequestration, ecological restoration and reforestation.

QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM), is a joint venture between Rio Tinto (80%) and the government of Madagascar (20%).

The renewable energy plant, to be built, owned and operated by independent power producer, CrossBoundary Energy, over a 20-year period, will consist of an 8 MW solar facility and a 12 MW wind energy facility to power mining and processing operations. There will also be a lithium-ion battery energy storage system of up to 8.25 MW as reserve capacity to ensure a stable and reliable network.

It will supply all of QMM’s electricity demand during peak generation times, and up to 60% of the operations’ annual electricity consumption, according to Rio. QMM is to replace the majority of the power it currently supplies to the town of Fort Dauphin and the community of around 80,000 people with renewables, the company added.

The renewable energy plant will comprise more than 18,000 solar panels and up to nine wind turbines located in the Port Ehoala Park area. Construction is expected to begin this year with the solar plant scheduled to start operations at the beginning 2022. The wind power plant is planned to commence construction in early 2022 and become operational by the end of 2022.

QMM President, Ny Fanja Rakotomalala, said: “On a sunny and windy day, all the electricity needed by QMM and the Fort Dauphin community will be generated by the Malagasy sun and wind. It is a major step forward on our journey towards a truly sustainable mine, that protects and promotes the uniqueness of Madagascar’s environment and benefits the community with reliable and clean electricity.”

Rio Tinto Minerals Chief Executive, Sinead Kaufman, said: “With this flagship project, QMM is leading the way at Rio Tinto and in Madagascar in utilising renewable energy to power mining operations and reduce carbon emissions.”

CrossBoundary Energy Co-founder and Managing Partner, Matt Tilleard, added: “Emissions from electricity use in mining is estimated to account for around 1% of all greenhouse gases globally. Rio Tinto is leading the way in demonstrating how mines can seize a huge opportunity to reduce these emissions. We are focused on delivering cleaner power to businesses and were, therefore, able to offer Rio Tinto a flexible, fast, all-equity funding approach, combined with our reliable track record as one of Africa’s largest distributed renewable utilities.”

QMM is near Fort Dauphin in the Anosy region of south-eastern Madagascar, and primarily produces ilmenite, in addition to zirsill and monazite. It includes the deep-water Port d’Ehoala, where the raw material is shipped to the Rio Tinto Fer et Titane plant in Canada and processed into titanium dioxide.

Primero, Mineral Technologies enlisted for Strandline’s Coburn mineral sands project

29th September 2020Comminution of minerals, Energy minerals, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining servicesCameron Henry, Coburn, Downer, ilmenite, leucoxene, mineral sands, Mineral Separation Plant, Mineral Technologies, monazite, Primero Group, rutile, Western Australia, Wet Concentration Plant, zirconDaniel Gleeson

Primero Group has been awarded preferred EPC status on a substantial contract with Strandline Resources on the Coburn mineral sands project in Western Australia.

The total volume of awarded engineering procurement and construction (EPC) works totals around A$150 million ($107 million), according to Primero, and follows an initial eight-week Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) process that provided further definition of the delivery strategy and project deliverables between the groups. It also coincided with the appointment of Mineral Technologies (MT), a global services provider and leader in the design and supply of mineral sands processing facilities (and a subsidiary of Downer Group), as the strategic technology partner alongside Primero for the project delivery.

Strandline said the contract involved the engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and performance testing of the Wet Concentration Plant (WCP), Mineral Separation Plant (MSP) and associated processing circuits at the operation.

The Coburn WCP is designed to beneficiate the heavy minerals (ilmenite, leucoxene, rutile, zircon and monazite) and reject the non-valuable, lighter minerals through multiple stages of high capacity gravity separation and classification, according to Strandline. The rich heavy mineral concentrate produced from the WCP will be transported to the MSP and stockpiled ready for processing.

“The WCP infrastructure is relocatable and is planned to be moved several times during the mine life as the mine advances along the orebody,” Strandline said. “The MSP design comprises conventional electrostatic separation, gravity and magnetic fractionation to recover a range of premium-quality final products, including chloride ilmenite, rutile, premium zircon and zircon concentrate.”

The full project award is subject to Strandline Resources approving a Final Investment Decision in the coming months, Primero said. The ECI process came after Strandline’s recent A$18.5 million equity raising.

Primero Managing Director and CEO, Cameron Henry, said: “This award is an excellent example of Primero’s ECI phase in action and adds to our growing book of projects in preferred contractor status. We have worked intensively with Strandline over the past two months in designing a delivery solution that best meets the key project objectives and value drivers, while also minimising execution risks.”

Strandline has also already appointed Piacentini & Son to design and construct three mobile dozer mining units for the project, while Macmahon has been named as the principal contractor to provide site-wide civil and bulk earthworks construction services for the project.

Stantec sizing up sites for Medallion’s US rare earth element extraction plant

9th January 2020Energy minerals, Mineral processing, Mining servicesDon Lay, Medallion' Kurt Forrester, monazite, Neodymium, praesodymium, rare earth element, Stantec, USADaniel Gleeson

Medallion Resources says it has engaged international engineering group Stantec to evaluate sites in the US for its planned rare earth element (REE) extraction plant.

The plant, which will use feedstock sourced from the southeast US, will leverage Medallion’s proprietary hydrometallurgical process to extract a REE concentrate from by-product monazite sand in a clean, safe, and automated fashion.

Medallion, after many years of test work and development, recently completed the design of this process.

Key features of the enhanced “caustic crack” REE extraction process include:

Full automation for low manpower requirements and worker isolation from harsh operating environments (chemical, thermal and radiological) for enhanced safety;
Highly-energy efficient design;
Option for a zero liquid discharge plant to provide additional flexibility on planning/permitting;
Waste production options; and
Employment of only “off-the-shelf” equipment — with innovations on their application.

The process design was led by Medallion’s Metallurgist Kurt Forrester, with the developmental test work performed at the Saskatchewan Research Council’s Mineral and Metallurgy Division, in addition to using input from thermodynamic model analysis and solubility testing development at the University of Toronto’s Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry Department. The test monazite feedstock was provided by a heavy-mineral sands (HMS) producer in the southeast US.

The plant’s output will be rich in and praseodymium (or NdPr), the critical input to the rare-earth permanent magnets that power the lightweight and powerful motors required in electric vehicles (EVs), defence applications, and numerous clean technologies, according to the company.

Don Lay, President & CEO of Medallion, said: “Based on recent announcements from the US Department of Defense on funding programs for rare-earth separation and magnet stockpiling as well as automakers’ desires for non-Chinese sources of NdPr, we’re taking this important step toward production.”

The proposed US-based REE plant has a small footprint and capital costs that are a fraction of the traditional REE mining and processing facilities, according to Medallion. “This provides a quick pathway to production of rare-earth products for domestic markets,” the company said.

The company said its plant location will be a “modern chemical processing setting with top-tier environmental standards and employ highly trained technicians”. The evaluation also covers both upstream and downstream logistics options related to the transport of monazite feedstock, reagents, produced concentrates and waste material.

Medallion plans to extract REEs from monazite tailing streams, which are a by-product of the HMS industry, with sources in the US, South America, Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

“Medallion has established relationships with many HMS firms to coordinate upgrading potential, volumes and timing of available material,” it said.