Northern Minerals advances pilot plant at Browns Range

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Rare earths developer Northern Minerals has moved ahead with its new mine plan at the Browns Range project, in Western Australia, appointing project house Entech to undertake the detailed planning of a 60 000 t/y pilot plant.

Entech would provide engineering services to design, schedule and cost the proposed openpit mines for the pilot plant at Browns Range, with the work to include pit optimisation, detailed pit design and mine schedules, which along with surface infrastructure design, would be used to determine the mining costs for the pilot plant.

The pilot plant was the first stage of Northern Mineral’s new business plan to take the Browns Range into full production, and was expected to produce 49 000 kg of dysprosium in 590 000 t of total rare earth oxides.

Northern Minerals in February unveiled the new business plan for the Browns Range project, which was developed in response to the downturn in the market.

The Stage 1 pilot plant was expected to de-risk the development of a full-scale operation by providing the company with the opportunity to test a number of process flowsheet variables that could not be replicated in a laboratory, and to provide knowledge of grade control and geology of the deposits.

The results from the pilot plant would be incorporated into a bankable feasibility study.

Northern Minerals had initially considered a conventional mining operation involving both opencut and underground operations, with Browns Range expected to deliver about 279 000 kg/y of dysprosium, over a mine life of ten years.