Mt Weld
Mt Weld Rare Earths Oxide (REO) deposit known as the ‘Central Lanthanide Deposit’ (CLD) is without a doubt the world’s richest Rare Earths ore body, capable of supplying up to 20% of the global market for 30 years.
In addition to the world class Rare Earths Oxide (REO) deposit, the Mt Weld carbonatite is also host to extensive polymetallic Resource within the 'Crown Deposit' including niobium, tantalum, zirconium, titanium, and Rare Earths.
Dr Phillip Hellman of Hellman & Schofield Pty Ltd, Sydney, completed a JORC-compliant multi-metal geostatistical resource estimation study which resulted in Indicated and Inferred Resources totally 37.7 million tonnes. The ore composition is presented in the table below. The majority of the ore lies between 30m and 60m in depth, suitable for open pit mining.
The scoping study completed in 2005 envisages an open-cut mine and a process route based on existing technology to produce a suite of metal compounds and products. The strong economic and technical results of the scoping study were encouraging.
Ore samples for mineralogical assessment and metallurgical testing were prepared this year. An external research institute has been engaged to work on the mineralogical assessment and preliminary process development of the polymetallic ore, thereby allowing this project to move forward whilst Lynas personnel remain dedicated to the development of the Rare Earths project.
The next step for the Crown Polymetallic deposit is commencement of process test work based on the mineralogy and preliminary process development.
Niobium
The Mt Weld Resource is potentially the world’s second largest Nb2O5 resource (ranked by contained niobium metal) compared to the resources of existing commercial operations which include:
- CBMM’s Araxa deposit in Brazil, with 460 million tonnes grading 2.5% Nb2O5 supplies over 80% of the world niobium market,
- Mineracao Catalao de Goias Ltd’s (Anglo American plc) deposit in Brazil totalling approximately 18 million tonnes at an average of 1.34% Nb2O5, and
- Niobec Inc’s Canadian underground deposit of 24 million tonnes at 0.65% Nb2O5
Titanium
Titanium metal and Ti-ferroalloy products are used in the aerospace industry, for specialised process equipment in power engineering,chemical processing and in sporting equipment, notably gold clubs.
Rare Earths and Scandium
The Mt Weld Rare Metals deposits also contain significant grades of Rare Earths strongly enriched with the valuable heavy lanthanides, which could ultimately contribute considerable value. Also present is scandium which is used in high strength aluminium alloys.
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