Name of the Project
Yangibana rare earths project.

Location
Australia.

Client
Hastings Technology Metals.

Project Description
A prefeasibility study (PFS) on the Yangibana project has confirmed the viability of the project.

The PFS is based on a seven-year mining operation, extracting only current Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resources in the indicated category estimated at 8.13-million tonnes. Inferred resources are estimated at 4.24-million tonnes.

The study envisages a one-million-tonne-a-year operation, extracting about seven-million tonnes of mill feed from the project’s Bald Hill South and Fraser’s Yangibana West and Yangibana North deposits over a mine life of seven years.

The PFS is based on the production of a mixed rare-earth double sulphate on site with overseas treatment to produce separated oxides of neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, europium, samarium and gadolinium through a toll agreement with a third party.

Additional rare earths will be considered for processing at a later date to meet future market requirements.

The toll treatment model will enable Hastings to take advantage of existing downstream processing technology and production facilities that currently exist abroad.

The advantage of this model is that Hastings does not need to develop, design and build its own separation and refining plant in Australia.

Subsequently, the company will not be able to start on-site development and fast-track to the production of the hydromet concentrate earlier than previously envisaged.

The proposed exploitation of the Yangibana deposits incorporated in the PFS is based on:
• mining and processing to produce a rare earths hydromet concentrate of double sulphate on site at Yangibana; and
• the separation and refining of the rare earths concentrate to produce separated rare-earth oxides and metals to be undertaken overseas.

Mining is proposed using standard drill-and-blast and truck-and-shovel methods. The mined ore will be crushed and milled to reduce the feed to the required sizing for the flotation process.

The on-site hydrometallurgical plant will further process the flotation concentrate, containing 85% of the initial rare earths in 4.9% to 7% of the original mass to extract the target rare earths into a mixed rare-earth double sulphate.

This double sulphate concentrate will be shipped offshore under a contract arrangement that will provide Hastings with separated rare-earth oxide products for sale.

The proposed contract refiner is an established operation that produces and markets rare earths products.

Jobs To Be Created
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $700-million to $750-million and an internal rate of return of 40%, with a payback on capital costs of 2.5 years.

Value
Total capital costs are estimated at between A$390-million and A$420-million.

Duration
The project is expected to start operations in 2019.

Latest Developments
Hastings plans to raise A$5-million through a share purchase plan to fund work at its Yangibana rare earths project.

Eligible shareholders will be allowed to subscribe for up to A$15 000 of ordinary shares, priced at 8.6c each, with up to 58.13-million shares on offer.

The funds raised will be used to continue in-fill drilling and drilling at several new targets at Yangibana to increase the confidence in the current resource, and to fund preliminary engineering design and specification work on the mine infrastructure and construction of the processing plant.

Funds will also go towards further optimisation testwork to increase the recovery and concentrate grades in the beneficiation process, and for initial procurement preparatory work to further reduce capital and operating expenditure.

“We continue to work towards achieving the objectives set out beyond the completion of the definitive feasibility study, which is expected by October this year. One of the key objectives is to reduce total capital expenditure for the Yangibana project to A$300-million and annual operating expenditure of A$120-million.” Hastings executive chairperson Charles Lew has said.

Hastings is also in discussions with debt providers to secure funding, and with the local Traditional Owners in the Gascoyne region to conclude a native title agreement.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Too early state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Hastings Technology Metals, tel +61 2 8268 8689, fax +61 2 8268 8699 or email info@hastingstechmetals.com.