KALGOORLIE (miningweekly.com) – Rare earths miner Lynas has used the Diggers and Dealers conference to announce a A$500-million initial expansion of its Mt Weld mine and concentrate plant, in Western Australia.

Lynas MD and CEO Amanda Lacaze said on Wednesday that in order for Lynas to meet the forecast growth in rare earth demand, the company had had to accelerate and increase its Lynas 2025 growth plans, which had been targeted at a 50% increase in neodymium praseodymium (NdPr) production to 10 500 t/y by 2025.

The initial A$500-million expansion of Mt Weld would increase production at Mt Weld from its current 7 000 t/y NdPr to 12 000 t/y by increasing the throughput capacity from 300 000 t/y to 1.3-million tonnes a year by 2024, with further uplift plans also in development.

The expansion of Mt Weld will be fully funded from operations, Lacaze said, and it will include upscaled processing equipment, efficiency improvements, enhanced sustainability and will provide a platform for further capacity increases.

Lacaze said that the A$500-million expansion of Mt Weld would complement the A$500-million investment being made into the Kalgoorlie rare earths processing centre.

“That’s an investment of some A$1-billion in the Goldfields, creating up to 600 jobs in the construction phase and an uplift in over 200 jobs in our ongoing operational workforce.”

Lacaze said that the updated growth plans would require capital investment in each stage of Lyna’s production and processing stages, however, Mt Weld was the first order of business.

“It doesn’t matter what you invest in downstream, if you don’t have the feedstock, your downstream investments won’t yield a return. So we have to start with the feedstock and that is Mt Weld,” Lacaze said on the side-lines of the conference.

“We will make further announcements as relevant, and it will require investment at each stage of the processing chain, but Mt Weld is the start.”

Procurement of long lead equipment items has started, and subject to relevant regulatory and stakeholder approvals, construction activities are expected to start in early 2023, with full operation planned for 2024.

In addition to this initial expansion project, Lynas also plans to implement further sustainability and circular economy activities on the Mt Weld site, including a staged transition from diesel fuelled power generation to gas and then hybrid renewable power generation, larger mine and waste rock landforms designed to be progressively rehabilitated, and surface water management to capture seasonal rain events and divert into managed aquifer or groundwater recharge that also forms flood protection infrastructure for climate change resilience.