Name of the Project
Yangibana rare earths and niobium project.

Location
Western Australia’s Gascoyne region.

Project Owner/s
Yangibana Joint Venture (YJV), a JV between Wyloo Gascoyne (JV manager) and 60% owner, and Hastings Technology Metals, which holds the remaining 40% interest.

Project Description
The project comprises the Bald Hill, Simon’s Find, Fraser’s, Auer, Yangibana and Yangibana North deposits and will be developed in two stages.

Stage 1 comprises a simple openpit mining operation and a mineral beneficiation plant that will extract rare earths using conventional flotation processes with total rare-earth oxide (TREO) recovery of 85.7%. The 1.2-million-tonne-a-year beneficiation plant is forecast to produce 37 000 t/y rare-earth element concentrate at 27% TREO, averaging 31 570 t/y over the 19-year life-of-mine (LoM).

The LoM is fully underpinned by total ore reserves of 20.93-million tonnes at 0.90% TREO, with no production attributed to inferred mineral resources. Neodymium/praseodymium (NdPr) represents 37% of contained TREO in the ore reserve and generates more than 90% of forecast project revenue.

Average TREO is estimated at 8 524 t/y in concentrate and average NdPr is estimated at 3 090 t/y in concentrate. Stage 2 proposes the separate development of a hydrometallurgical facility to refine concentrate into mixed rare earth carbonate and is not part of the updated DFS.

Potential Job Creation
Not disclosed.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The updated DFS estimates a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $649-million and an internal rate of return of 34%, with a 2.4-year payback from first production.

Capital Expenditure
Stage is estimated at A$333.4-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Subject to a final investment decision (FID), the current schedule targets first concentrate production about two years after the award of the process plant engineering, procurement and construction contract, including the recommissioning of the accommodation village by week 17, the start of plant site bulk earthworks at week 25, the start of Bald Hill prestrip at week 80, wet commissioning from week 88 and practical completion at week 100.

Latest Developments
An estimated $160-million's worth of infrastructure and long-lead equipment has been delivered for Stage 1. YJV’s has turned its focus to securing project financing and progressing towards a final investment decision. An early works phase is recommended to progress the recommissioning of existing facilities and ordering of the remaining long lead items.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
YJV (communication infrastructure, business enterprise systems and IT, marketing, economic evaluation and aerodrome); GR Engineering Services (DFS engineering and estimation); Gil Lane Consulting (geology and resource estimation); Snowden and 3rd Rock Consulting (mine geotechnical design); Intermine Engineering Consultants (ore reserve); Resolve Mining Solutions (mine design and planning); metallurgical and vendor testwork (various); GHD (civil geotechnical design, accommodation, hydrogeology and tailings storage facility), Water Technology (surface water hydrology); and GRES (power and fuel supply).

Contact Details for Project Information
Hastings Technology Metals, tel +61 8 6117 6118 or email info@hastingstechmetals.com.