Lofdal rare earth project achieves positive preliminary economic assessment
Namibia Critical Metals this week announced a positive preliminary economic assessment for the significantly expanded Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project.
The recent assessment aims at a significantly larger annual run-of-mine and plant throughput of 2 million tonnes per year and longer mine life than the historical assessment of 2014 by mining from two sub-deposits namely ‘Pit 2B’ and ‘Pit 4’.
Additionally, the processing flow sheet was simplified to a direct flotation of the run-of-mine material and expanded to include a hydrometallurgical unit producing a >98% mixed rare earth oxide as a final product instead of xenotime concentrate.
Darrin Campbell, President of Namibia Critical Metals 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.
“This strong economic analysis supports the continued rapid development of Lofdal and we are moving forward with the next steps including a Pre-Feasibility Study of this extended mining operation over the next few months. This robust economic assessment is only on 50% of our existing resource and we believe there is still considerable upside in exploration,” Campbell said.
He explains that currently, processing test work continues, and it is expected to further significantly improve recoveries in all processing steps which will allow the Lofdal project to become one of the major future sources of dysprosium and terbium globally.
The Lofdal deposit, located in Khorixas is being developed in a joint venture with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (“JOGMEC”) targeting a long-term, sustainable supply of heavy rare earth to Japan.
