Namibia Critical plans ‘significantly’ bigger rare-earth mine
The Lofdal heavy rare-earth project has the potential to be a ‘significantly’ bigger operation than the previous studies indicated, with Namibia Critical Metals unveiling the results of a new preliminary economic assessment (PEA) this month.
The new PEA works on a larger yearly run-of mine (RoM) and plant throughput of two-million tonnes a year and a longer mine life than the historical PEA of 2014, by including two subdeposits, namely Pit 2B and Pit 4.
Further, the processing flow sheet was simplified to a direct flotation of the RoM material and expanded to include a hydrometallurgical unit producing more than 98% mixed rare-earth oxide (REO) as a final product, instead of xenotime concentrate.
The new PEA gave the Lofdal project a net present value (NPV) of $391-million after tax and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 28%. This compares with the 2014 PEA, which concluded that the project would have the potential to produce an average of 1 500 t/y of separated REO, with an NPV, using a 10% discount, of $148-million, and an IRR of 42%.
The 2022 study estimated initial capital costs, with a 30% contingency, at $207-million, with a payback of 3.2 years.
Lofdal will produce 2 000 t/y of total REO, including 117 t/y of dysprosium and 17.5 t/y of terbium.
“This is a major step forward in establishing Lofdal as a world-class heavy rare project and a globally significant potential supplier of dysprosium and terbium, the two most valuable rare-earth metals,” said Namibia Critical Metals president Darrin Campbell.
The price of dysprosium oxide is $587/kb and that terbium oxide is $2 493/kg. The average basket price is $91/kg, including third-party separation costs.
The PEA is based on mining only 26-million tonnes of resource, or about 50% of the 53-million tonnes in the mineral resource estimate of June 2021. The project will have a mine life of 16 years, with 13-million tonnes of low-grade stockpile which could expand the life-of-mine.
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