Heavy rare earths producer Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU) is collecting valuable information from the operation of its pilot plant at the Browns Range project to better determine how a full-scale commercial project can be developed. The company expects that incremental steps will be made from new knowledge to adjust both the rate of production and the quality of product.
Highlights
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Pilot plant at Browns Range is continuing to assess the technical and economic feasibility of a full-scale commercial operation
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Valuable data has been collected from testwork to feed back into the processing flowsheet
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Northern Minerals will continue to increase output from the pilot plant to steady state in order to assess the quality of the rare earth carbonate produced Test-work to date has identified areas of new knowledge that have been applied to the pilot plant
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The information collected through this phase of the project is a critical step for the company to determine if a commercial scale operation can be developed
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Browns Range access road has been added to the Infrastructure Australia’s Infrastructure Priority List
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Senate Inquiry into draft legislation for research and development (R&D) recommends changes to legislation including reviewing the cap on the refundable portion of the R&D
Australian heavy rare earths producer Northern Minerals Limited (ASX: NTU) (the Company) is pleased to provide an update in relation to the Browns Range pilot plant. As previously announced, the Company has embarked on a pilot scale project aimed at assessing the technical and economic feasibility of a full-scale commercial operation.
The testwork program has commenced and first pilot plant production of rare earth carbonate has been achieved. A total of 7,200kg of Rare Earth Carbonate has been produced to test the pilot plant operation and to collect valuable data to feed back into the processing flowsheet.
Importantly, the data collected from the pilot plant has already provided a better understanding of the ability to produce rare earth carbonate at the required specification and has identified areas of new knowledge that have been applied to the operation of the pilot facility. NTU will continue to ramp up the output from the pilot plant to steady state in order to assess the quality of the rare earth carbonate produced.
The company expects that incremental steps will be made from new knowledge to adjust both the rate of production and the quality of product.
Northern Minerals’ Managing Director and CEO, George Bauk, said, “The information ultimately being collected through this phase of the project is a critical step for the company to determine how a full scale commercial scale operation can be developed.”
The Browns Range access road has been included as one of the priorities in the Infrastructure Priority List recently published by Infrastructure Australia.
Infrastructure Australia is an independent statutory body that is the key source of research and advice for governments, industry and the community on nationally significant infrastructure needs. Infrastructure Australia has a mandate to prioritise and progress nationally significant infrastructure investments.
The committee of the Senate inquiry into the proposed legislation changes to R&D has recommended the government defer consideration of the bill until further examination and analysis of the impact. In particular for NTU, they recommended the approach to the cap on the refundable portion of the R&D tax incentive is refined, noting investment decisions already undertaken.
