Nolans Rare Earths Mine Gains Major Project Status in Northern Territory, Australia

Rare Earth Deposits & Mining / Rare Earth Exploration, Mining, Processing, & Uses

Date posted: 10/02/16

Courtney Fowler reports that the Nolans Rare Earths Project has gained major project status from the Commonwealth Government. Arafura Resources plans to mine neodymium and praseodymium at Nolans, near Aileron, 135 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs. The chemical elements would then be transported to an offshore refinery for final chemical processing into high-value rare earth products, which are currently in high demand for electrical products across the world. Arafura Northern Territory general manager Brian Fowler said the major project status was an important milestone that would assist Nolans gain its pending environmental approvals, as well as sending a positive message to potential financers of the project. We have been pursuing this project now for a number of years. It is a very significant project worldwide. We are now approaching the stage of the project where we are into final test work, and the next phase will move into detailed engineering and that will necessitate financing the project. Mr Fowler anticipated the final assessment process would be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2017, before the project moved into design and construct phase. We submitted our environmental impact statement on the Nolans project at the end of May, and it went through a public review process which went on for around 8 to 10 weeks, he said. We have received all the comments back from regulators, NGOs and their stakeholders, and we are currently working through those comments now.