JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – LSE-listed Rainbow Rare Earths is on schedule for first production and sales of rare-earth concentrate from its Gakara rare-earth project, in Burundi, in the fourth quarter of this year.
The first shipment is scheduled for the end of this year under a distribution and offtake agreement with multinational thyssenkrupp Raw Materials.
Rainbow is also targeting a production rate of 5 000 t/y by the end of 2018.
This follows the completion of an airborne magnetic survey that suggests at least four large and highly prospective anomalies for a carbonatite source for Gakara’s rare-earth veins, providing significant exploration upside potential.
“With the first shipment of Gakara concentrate imminent, we are encouraged by the identification of at least four highly prospective anomalies which could directly enhance the longer-term production profile of this project,” Rainbow CEO Martin Eales said in a statement.
The anomalies range in diameter from 300 m to 2 700 m and have modelled starting depths of 20 m to 67 m.
Rainbow commissioned a helicopter-borne magnetic and radiometric survey, which was flown by New Resolution Airborne Geophysics, in the first half of October, over the entire Gakara 135 km² exploration licence.
“The results from the recent airborne survey and the Kiyenzi gravity survey supply Rainbow with ready-made, large and highly prospective targets warranting further investigation through a drilling campaign when cash flows from operations allow,” the company said.
The survey had also provided Rainbow with a detailed geological and structural map of the entire exploration licence, showing previously unmapped lithological domains and better delineating reported geological formations, along with comprehensive data to assist decision-making around the scheduled expiration of the company’s exploration licence area in 2018.