Tag Archives: rare earth oxides

Steinert XRT ore sorter testing shows promise at Northern Minerals rare earth project

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Northern Minerals Ltd has progressed its ore sorting project enhancement initiative with the commissioning and testing of the Steinert sorter system, and is now producing ore sorted material and converting this to a 30% total rare earth oxide (TREO) concentrate in its’ Browns Range beneficiation plant in Western Australia.

Northern Minerals’ CEO, Mark Tory, said: “The construction, commissioning and testing of the ore sorter circuit marks another milestone in the development of the Browns Range project.

“The positive bulk sample tests confirm the effectiveness of the ore sorting circuit on the Wolverine ore to significantly increase the head grade to the mill which is expected to result in higher production rates and lower operating costs for a full-scale operation at Browns Range.

“It’s also pleasing to see the initial ore sorting tests the Banshee ore showing promise which, if shown to be effective in future tests, has potential to significantly increase the Browns Range mineral resource estimate.”

He added: “Being able to test and operate the ore sorting circuit in conjunction with the pilot beneficiation plant is providing extremely valuable data that you just can’t get from small bench-scale tests and this will feed into our feasibility study for a potential commercial scale heavy rare earth operation at Browns Range.”

The ore sorter system was constructed during 2020 and 2021 and commissioned in June 2021. The sorter that was installed is a 2-m wide Steinert sorter that uses X-ray Transmission (XRT) and laser detectors to identify rare earth mineralisation.

The sorter has been run over two test campaigns, which included 41 test runs processing 5,300 t of ore from the run of mine stockpiles largely coming from Wolverine ore, and five test runs on Banshee ore that was bulk sampled from a surface costean that provided 285 t of Banshee ore.

The tests have confirmed that simultaneous sorting of two size fractions is possible on the sorter, allowing a single machine to sort both sortable size fractions (10 mm-25 mm and 25 mm-75 mm), Northern Minerals says. The sortable fraction (>10 mm material) of Wolverine ore can be successfully sorted (90% TREO recovery in 50% of the mass) and, when combined with non-sortable fines, achieves a 45% grade increase to the mill and over 95% TREO recovery when feeding a 0.9% TREO ore.

The sorter system is now being run to produce feed for the beneficiation plant and 4,479 t of Wolverine ore have been processed through the ore sorter circuit to the end of August. Processing of the Wolverine ore sorted material in the beneficiation plant has resulted in better recoveries in the magnetic separation plant and flotation plant compared with feeding unsorted ore, the company says. A bulk sample of 50 t of 30% TREO rare earth concentrate has being produced for test work by facilities identified with likely future capability and capacity to process the heavy rare earth xenotime concentrate produced at Browns Range.

Bulks sample tests have highlighted some key factors to consider for ore sorting that cannot be determined at bench scale using vendor equipment in laboratory settings. Understanding the impact of these factors is critical to including an ore sorting circuit in a full-scale processing facility.

Initial sorting tests of the Banshee ore have shown that the highly oxidised surface material contains a large fines fraction and that the grade of the sortable fraction (ie >10 mm) can be doubled recovering more than 60% of the TREO in 25% of the mass. An additional bulk sample is being extracted from deeper in the costean and three diamond drill holes are being drilled for further test work.

The bulk ore sorting test work is a key input for the full-scale beneficiation plant feasibility study currently underway, which will also leverage off the substantial technical, operational and economic data from the R&D test work at the Browns Range Pilot Plant since 2018, the company says.

Lynas ready for Mt Weld rare earth concentrate boost following dryer delivery

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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.”

Wood Group, Nagrom devise high-grade rare earth flowsheet for Pensana’s Longonjo

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Pensana Rare Earths says it has successfully produced a neodymium- and praseodymium-rich mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) from test work currently underway on mineralisation from its Longonjo rare earth project, in Angola.

Industry experts Wood Group and Nagrom, based on test work performed at metallurgical laboratories in Perth, Western Australia, have successfully developed a flowsheet to produce a particularly high-grade MREC, with NdPr comprising 33.5% of the total rare earths content, Pensana said.

This MREC is a much higher-purity and higher-value product and has a much broader market and range of applications than the concentrate product contemplated in Pensana’s prefeasibility study, according to the company. Also, based on information provided by Wood and Nagrom, the specifications of Longonjo’s MREC compare favourably with the main products currently being produced and sold mainly in China.

In the meantime, the pilot plant and metallurgical test work at Longonjo are ongoing with a view to finalising the preferred process route and to providing data for engineering and production cost estimations for the bankable feasibility study (BFS).

A comprehensive update on the BFS will be reported towards the end of the month, with the company explaining that two of the circuits will be required to run for longer to bring the test work results up to the required reporting standards for the study.

“A key feature that the study will report is the potential for the project to be brought online as the first major rare earth mine in over a decade which can also offer a sustainable supply of mixed rare earth carbonate at a time when there is growing concern around the provenance of the rare earth supply chain,” the company said.

Pensana Chief Executive Officer, Tim George, said: “This is an important milestone for the project as it confirms the potential to produce a marketable higher value NdPr rich mixed rare earth carbonate. The market for this carbonate is substantially larger than that of a concentrate and is potentially not limited to China.

“We are now in a position to commence discussions with potential offtake parties in Japan, Korea and Europe in addition to the wide range of potential customers in China.

“Importantly the combination of this value-adding step, with the excellent infrastructure, not least the available hydro-electric power supply, will enable us to develop Longonjo as one of the world’s most sustainable rare earth suppliers on the critical magnet metal supply chain.”

Pensana recently issued a resource upgrade for Longonjo, which outlined measured, indicated and inferred resources of 313 Mt at 1.43% rare earth oxides, including 0.32% NdPr for 4.47 Mt of REO including 990,000 t of NdPr.

Energy Fuels to evaluate rare earth oxide potential from coal-based resources

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Energy Fuels Inc, in partnership with a team from Penn State, is to start work on a project evaluating and developing a conceptual design to allow for the commercial production of mixed rare earth oxides (REO) from coal-based resources in an environmentally-benign fashion.

The company said it has been advised by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) of their intent to award a contract to Energy Fuels, working with the team from Penn State, on this project. Furthermore, the DOE has the option to award Energy Fuels a contract for the completion of a feasibility study on this initiative, Energy Fuels said.

The DOE has already demonstrated the technical feasibility of extracting rare earth elements (REE) from coal and coal-based resources, including coal refuse, over/under burden materials, power generation ash and the like, but it now wishes to accelerate the advancement of commercially viable technologies to produce REE from these coal-based resource, Energy Fuels says.

Energy Fuels applied for this grant in June 2020, as REEs contained in these coal-based resources are similar to the REEs contained in other materials the company is currently evaluating in its REE program.

The first phase of DOE funding will allow Energy Fuels and the team from Penn State to complete a detailed conceptual design and flowsheet for the potential commercial operation of a facility that produces REOs from coal-based resources, Energy Fuels said. Following this phase, the DOE will conduct a merit evaluation and determine whether to award the funding for the development of a feasibility study.

Mark S Chalmers, President and CEO of Energy Fuels, said: “We are excited to have the opportunity to work with the DOE office of FE, the NETL, and Penn State on this important rare earth initiative. Energy Fuels has been carrying out substantial work over the past year to explore the potential for implementing a commercial rare earth recovery and processing program at our White Mesa Mill (pictured).

“This initiative to produce REOs from coal-based resources is complementary to our ongoing efforts and will potentially broaden the sources of REE feedstock available to us in the future. We also hope this project opens the door for us to work with the DOE and other agencies on future rare earth initiatives.”

Vital moves towards REO production with mining, road construction and ore sorting contracts

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Vital Metals says it has agreed multiple development and supply contracts that will assist it in rapidly becoming North America’s next rare earth mining company.

The ASX listed company’s Cheetah subsidiary has signed preferred mining contractor and ice-road construction contracts for its Nechalacho rare earth project, in the Northwest Territories of Canada, with Det’on Cho Nahanni Construction and Aurora Telecom Services, respectively. These contracts allow for the mobilisation of plant and equipment to site over the winter to enable site establishment works to be completed in preparation for operations to commence in 2020.

In addition to this, it has also issued a purchase order to acquire COM Tertiary X-ray Transmission (XRT) 1220/B ore sorting equipment from TOMRA Sorting Inc for C$1.4 million ($1.07 million).

All three of these moves follow close on the heels of the delivery of a 95 Mt JORC-compliant resource at Nechalacho and positive concentration and hydrometallurgy test work.

Vital Metals Managing Director, Geoff Atkins, said: “The signing of these agreements marks an important milestone in the development of the Nechalacho rare earth project as they provide the foundations for enabling Vital Metals to become a producer of rare earths in 2020 through the processing of material from the North T zone. These contracts and agreements also provide prospective customers with a far greater level of confidence in potential delivery dates to progress offtake negotiations.

“Further, by confirming the use of sensor-based ore sorting technology to produce a concentrate, it will remove the requirement for traditional reagents, process water and tailing facilities used in typical ore beneficiation.”

The decision to acquire the TOMRA ore sorter follows excellent results achieved from the recently completed ore sorting test work that produced a high grade (+35%) concentrate, Vital Metals said.

The COM Tertiary XRT 1220/B ore sorter is the same machine used in test work to produce the high-grade product, it said. The purchase order includes supply, installation, commissioning and spare parts, with delivery of the sorter to Yellowknife scheduled for June 2020.

“The ore sorting test work highlighted that the Nechalacho REO project is one of the few and the first REO project to successfully use ore sorting to produce a high grade +35% REO concentrate without the use of reagents and water,” the company said. “This will substantially reduce the cost and the lead time to bring the Necalacho REO project into production.”