Name of the Project
Wicheeda rare earth element project.

Location
North-east of Prince George, in British Columbia, Canada.

Project Owner/s
Exploration and rare earths development company Defense Metals Corp.

Project Description
A prefeasibility study (PFS) has established the Wicheeda as one of the most advanced undeveloped rare earth projects in North America or Europe.

The project has proven and probable reserves of 25.46-million tonnes grading 2.43% total rare-earth oxide (TREO), 961 parts per million (ppm) praseodymium oxide, 2 661 ppm neodymium oxide, 11 ppm terbium oxide and 33 ppm dysprosium oxide.

The project’s reserves support a 15-year life-of-mine with an average production of 31 900 t/y of TREO in concentrate, yielding about 5 200 t of TREO in a high-value mixed rare-earth carbonate after the removal of cerium and lanthanum.

Mined ore will be crushed at a facility near the pit and transported by conveyor to sustain a 1.8-million-tonne-a-year mill feed to the on-site flotation plant. The plant will produce a high-grade rare-earth mineral concentrate averaging 50% TREO.

Waste rock will be placed in a waste rock storage facility adjacent to the pit.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $1.8-billion and an internal rate of return of 24.6%, with after-tax payback of 3.7 years from the start of construction.

Capital Expenditure
Initial capital is estimated at $1.4-billion.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Defense Metals has started a confirmatory pilot flotation plant test programme, which will be conducted at the SGS Canada metallurgical facility in Lakefield, Ontario.

Defense Metals has contracted SGS Canada to undertake the programme, which is designed to confirm the results of the 2021 pilot plant, further advance metallurgical development, generate flotation concentrate for hydrometallurgical pilot plant work and support future engineering studies for the project.

The programme will use about 30 t of drill core material from the Wicheeda deposit in two subsamples representing planned production from Year 1 to 5, and Year 6 onwards of the prefeasibility study (PFS) mine plan.

The primary objective of the pilot flotation campaign is to generate a representative rare-earth flotation concentrate grading about 50% TREOs.

The concentrate produced during the pilot programme will be used in a planned downstream hydrometallurgical pilot plant to confirm and optimise the general process conditions of the PFS, with the representative concentrate generated from this pilot flotation programme.

In addition to concentrate production, the continuous pilot-scale operation will generate representative process tailings for downstream testing and characterisation.

The company has indicated that the pilot plant will also confirm metallurgical performance under continuous operating conditions while providing valuable engineering and process design data for future project development activities.

To further support engineering design, Defense Metals has engaged Jenike & Johanson to conduct bulk solids handling testwork on various production plant process streams using samples generated during the pilot plant operation.

The testing is expected to provide important design criteria pertaining to materials handling for process plant design.

SGS has completed prepilot characterisation work, including head assays, grindability testing, laboratory-scale flotation testing and pilot plant setup activities.

Pilot plant operations started on May 12 and are expected to continue for about five weeks.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Hatch and SRK Consulting (PFS).

Contact Details for Project Information
Defense Metals Corp senior VP, corporate development and interim CFO Alex Heath, tel +1 604 354 2491 or email alex@defensemetals.com.