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sIte VIsIt

We’re currently sitting at the start of the

financial year with $20 million in the bank,
which is a great position to be in and one that we
“n’t been in as a company over our journey.
have

An ore sorter from Steinert was recently
have a workforce that is closer. company’s production ambitions. Initial commissioned at the Browns Range
“We’ve definitely learnt a lot in rela- bench-scale tests on the Browns Range pilot plant and has been described as
tion to the whole process. For example, ore indicated the system could double a “game-changer” for the Kimberley-
we know from running through it that the feed grade to the mill, thereby sig- based operation
our magnetic separators are probably nificantly reducing capital and operating
too small, so we need those to be built costs for the project.
whatever percentage larger. And the dif- “If the ore sorter works anywhere close
ferent tests we’ve been running through to what it does in the lab, that’s game
the R&D process have demonstrated we changing,” he said. “And the reason it’s
probably won’t build the full-scale ‘bene’ game changing is twofold; it impacts the
plant exactly the same way the pilot plant size of the beneficiation plant and hence
is. the capital costs, and it impacts the oper-
“It’s been an expensive process, but ating costs for the same amount of TREO
it’s a very useful process nonetheless.” running through the beneficiation plant.
Potentially the biggest learning from “We want to have the most accurate
the pilot plant could come via the ore picture that we can of what the beneficia-
sorter recently commissioned into the tion plant will cost us. If we’re going to run
process by Melbourne-based Steinert. a 2% TREO into the front of the ‘bene’
Northern Minerals has been running bulk plant, that’s very different to running at
samples from stockpiled ore, including 1% TREO.” to levels not seen since the original DFS
lower grade material, since May to vali- Despite the suspension of operations was completed in 2015.
date the technical and economic benefits at Browns Range during the height of the Northern Minerals spent about $5 mil-
of the circuit and to optimise its beneficia- pandemic last year, the pilot plant has lion on exploration last financial year and
tion flowsheet. been running steadily for the best part of has doubled that expenditure in FY2022
Tory said the ore sorting technology 12 months. This has coincided with the on the back of returning intercepts of
was a potential game-changer for the company ramping up exploration efforts 12m @ 0.43% TREO from 34m, 13m @
0.43% TREO from 23m and 4m @ 0.63%
TREO from 41m from prospects such as
Banshee West.
“When we started the initial work
around a feasibility study [for the benefi-
ciation plant] we quickly realised we were
going to need a lot more resources, but
we really have not put money into explo-
ration since 2013/14 in any significant
manner,” Tory said.
“A lot of these [drill] targets we have
known about for a long time, they just
haven’t been given the money to be
drilled. All the money we’ve been raising
has been going into the development and
running of the plant; we didn’t have any
extra to put to the exploration. It’s been
very minimal on the exploration front and
that’s what we’re ramping up now.”
Northern Minerals last month kicked
off a second phase drilling campaign
which will include up to 12,000m of RC
drilling aimed at expanding near-surface
resources. It will specifically comprise a
combination of follow-up holes at Ban-
shee West and Toad, drill investigation
in the vicinity of the Gambit and Gambit
West deposits, and drill testing of green-
The Wolverine deposit. Northern Minerals has named many of its resources at Browns field targets at Ripcord, Pulse and Quick-
Range after X-Men comic characters due to the fact they are hosted in xenotime ore silver.

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