JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – LSE-listed Rainbow Rare Earths has started mining ore from the Gasagwe pit at its Gakara rare earth project, in Burundi.
CEO Martin Eales on Tuesday said the company was firmly on track to deliver its first shipment of concentrate from the mine in the fourth quarter of this year.
At the Gasagwe site, the company has focused on prestripping work since April, which has exposed the main vein to a depth of around 3 m to 5 m along 90 m of strike with several other subsidiary veins that are connected or adjacent.
Following completion of the construction of the run-of-mine (RoM) bunkers at the Kabezi plant site, Rainbow has started extraction of RoM ore and will be stockpiling the feedstock in advance of plant commissioning within the next six to eight weeks.
Rainbow has completed bulk earthworks at the Kabezi plant site and has made timely progress with the necessary civils construction in preparation for the erection of the processing plant, albeit with some temporary delays caused by local shortages of cement and aggregate.
The company has already imported over half of the planned container shipments of plant and machinery, with the balance due to arrive during September and October.
Rainbow will sell the rare-earth concentrate in partnership with thyssenkrupp Raw Materials.
The two companies are confident that there is strong demand for all of Rainbow’s planned near-term production, which is to achieve a run rate of 5 000 t/y of rare-earth concentrate before the end of 2018.
Further, prices for rare-earth elements have increased rapidly in recent months, with Rainbow’s basket price having increased to more than $18/kg by September 18, an 80% increase on the basket price since the company’s initial public offering on January 30.