Page 13 - pd296-August21-mag-web

ory last month celebrated
Tone year in the hot seat at
Northern Minerals after being
handed the keys to both the
company and its now globally
recognised Browns Range pro-
ject following the departure of
long-serving predecessor and
colleague George Bauk. The
leadership transition occurred at
a time when the future of the as-
piring heavy rare earths produc-
er appeared precariously placed
to those outside its four walls.
Northern Minerals had only
months earlier suspended op-
erations at Browns Range,
about 160km south-east of
Halls Creek in Western Aus-
tralia’s Kimberley region, due Northern Minerals chief executive Mark Tory
to the COVID-19 pandemic. In
the background, the company’s company over our journey. “We’re not going to be continuously
long-running dispute with the “It’s given everyone here the confi- running the ore sorter and then putting
Australian Tax Office over R&D dence moving forward that the company it through the beneficiation plant and the
credits was far from resolved. has the cash and we’re going to be able hydromet. We’ll do the ore sorter work
Prices for dysprosium and ter- to fund the programmes we’re now rolling first and then the beneficiation and the
bium, which the company had out. All of the guys on site are energised, hydromet work at the pilot plant level.
been mining and processing via both those in the pilot plant doing the test Then we’ll be looking at processing the
an on-site pilot plant for the past work for the ore sorter and the explora- stockpiles sitting at the front of the plant,
two years, were also showing tion team who have over 170 targets they starting sometime in the June quarter
no signs of awakening from their want to put some money into.” next year.”
nearly decade-long slumber. Tory is quick to dismiss suggestions Since being switched on in mid-2018,
Tory was the obvious candi- the past year was a period of turnaround the Browns Range pilot plant has pro-
date to fill Bauk’s giant shoes, for Northern Minerals, instead preferring duced more than 210,000kg of heavy
having served as chief financial to describe it as a “massage” to the com- rare earth carbonate. That package in-
officer and company secretary pany’s long-held strategy of becoming cludes 103,731kg of rare earth oxide,
of Northern Minerals for eight the largest producer of heavy rare earths which in turn contains 9,751kg of dyspro-
years. Since the handover he outside China. sium oxide and 1,245kg terbium oxide.
has been instrumental in not Having successfully operated the pi- Regular shipments exit Darwin port and
only settling the company’s is- lot plant at Browns Range for two years, are delivered to the company’s offtake
sues with the ATO to extinguish Northern Minerals is now running a fea- partner Thyssenkrupp Materials Trading
its debt burden, but also raising sibility study for a full-scale beneficiation GmbH.
$20 million via a heavily over- plant as an alternative to moving straight Tory said operation of the pilot plant –
subscribed placement to restart into development of a much larger facil- comparable in size to several small gold
pilot plant operations and fire up ity incorporating hydrometallurgical pro- processing facilities in WA – was not only
the drill rigs at Browns Range cessing and separation. producing saleable parcels of rare earths
for the first time in seven years. Tory said pursuing a standalone ben- but a number of key learnings around
“The last 12 months have eficiation plant was a more attractive first what a full-scale processing facility might
been great in relation to shoring option for potential financiers and would look like.
up our financial position,” Tory also bring operational cash flow forward “One of those is we will not build a full-
told Paydirt following a site visit by at least two years compared to the scale hydromet plant up on site,” Tory
to Browns Range in June. original plan outlined in the 2015 DFS. explained. “We can foresee difficulties in
“We’re currently sitting at the “We’re basically looking to finish up our attracting the right level of staff to run a
start of the financial year with ore sorter test work in Q1 2022, including hydromet plant and also the fact of how
$20 million in the bank, which running product we’ll get out of the ore costly it will be to run one in such a re-
is a great position to be in and sorter through the beneficiation/hydrom- mote area. We needed to be closer to
one that we haven’t been in as a et plant,” he said. cheaper energy, cheaper reagents and

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT aUgUST 2021 Page 13