お知らせ • Jul 13
Hastings Technology Metals Limited Provides Updated Definitive Feasibility Study for Yangibana Rare Earths Project
Hastings Technology Metals Limited provided an updated Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for Stage 1 of the Yangibana Rare Earths and Niobium Project, comprising open pit mining and a mineral beneficiation plant that produces a rare earth concentrate for sale. The updated DFS reflects current capital and operating cost estimates, updated market based rare earth pricing forecasts, an owner-operator mining model, and the site infrastructure already built and completed on site and confirms robust economics that support the continued progression of the Project towards Final Investment Decision. Stage 1 is sequenced as a capital-efficient, fast-track route to production from one of the world’s highest-grade NdPr rare earth ore bodies. The objective is to bring Yangibana into production and cash flow, while preserving optionality to pursue higher-value downstream processing as and when those opportunities are separately assessed. The Yangibana Rare Earth Project is a highly attractive rare earths deposit with long mine life and long-term source of critical minerals to support rare earth magnet production. Total Ore Reserves of 20.93Mt at 0.90% TREO. NdPr content is high, with a NdPr:TREO ratio of 34%. 19 years mine life with an estimated total production of 160,500t of TREO in concentrate. Mine life is entirely supported by Proven and Probable Ore Reserves. LOM cash operating cost of AUD 162.21/t ROM or AUD 20.75/kg TREO in concentrate. Pre-tax NPV8 of AUD 649 million, 34% IRR and a 2.4-year payback. The project generates AUD 108 million free cash flow per year (EBITDA) after royalties. Simple open-pit mining operation for current LOM. Process plant uses conventional flotation process with 85.7% TREO recovery. All environmental approvals have been obtained and secondary works approvals in place to allow construction to immediately commence. The Project consists of six main deposits, namely Bald Hill, Simons Find, Fraser’s, Auer, Yangibana and Yangibana Northwest (NW) and has a total Mineral Resources Estimate of 29.93 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.93% Total Rare Earth Oxides reported at 0.24% TREO cut-off grade. An Ore Reserve of 20.93Mt at 0.90% TREO has been estimated and is a subset of the Mineral Resource Estimate. The Yangibana Project will be developed in two stages, with Stage 1 focused on mining and a mineral beneficiation plant to produce a rare earth concentrate, and Stage 2 being a hydrometallurgical plant to refine the rare earth concentrate through to a mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) product. Mining is via drill, blast, load and haul using conventional open pits. The mined ore will be processed through a beneficiation plant with an ore throughput of up to 1.2 million tonnes per annum consisting of crushing, ore sorting, milling, flotation, tailings and concentrate handling. An annual output of up to 37,000tpa of rare earth concentrate is anticipated over a 19-year mine life at an average grade of 27% TREO. In Stage 2, a hydrometallurgical plant will be constructed to process concentrate from the Yangibana Project into an intermediate MREC product. The process involves sulphuric acid cracking, leaching, impurity removal, precipitation and drying. Once completed, the plant will have an annual output of up to 15,000 tonnes per annum of MREC at 59% TREO. The MREC product will be shipped to customers for further downstream processing into various oxides including NdPr, which are then metallised before being made into permanent magnets. The DFS covers Stage 1 of the Yangibana Project. The Ore Reserve is derived from, and is a sub-set of, the Yangibana Mineral Resource Estimate. The Ore Reserve is 20.93Mt at a grade of 0.90% TREO. The Ore Reserve was estimated based on pit designs that use recommended slopes, ramp widths, and gradients suitable for standard open cut mining equipment. No additional dilution has been applied to the resource models, a 2% ore loss factor on the diluted resource tonnes. Open pit optimisations were completed using Whittle 4X software on each of the resource block models. The selected pit shell was then used as a basis for a final pit design. The total mineable inventory is derived by using Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources with a 2% loss factor applied. The mining inventory used for the DFS is constrained by Proved and Probable Ore Reserves within the pit designs and equates to 20.54Mt at 0.91% TREO. Mining activities are conventional open pit operation managed under an Owner-Operator model. The open pit mining occurs for 16 years and then mining ceases and low-grade stockpiles are reclaimed to provide mill feed for an additional 3 years. The open pit operation has a pre-production period of 3 months, commencing at Bald Hill. This period covers pre-strip activities and the building of sufficient run-of-mine stockpiles ahead of commissioning the process plant. Ore is sourced from Bald Hill and Yangibana NW open pits for the first 60 months, these deposits have the lowest strip ratio due to the dip and orientation of the resource. The strip ratio over the first 5 years is 4.9:1 and increases to 9.9:1 over LOM. Mining commences at the Fraser’s deposit in Year 5, with ore sourced from all three deposits. Yangibana NW pit is completed after approximately 7.5 years and Bald Hill after 11 years. Mining at Simon’s Find and Yangibana pits commence during this period to maintain production. The Fraser’s deposit becomes exhausted by the end of Year 13 with the production then supplemented from the Auer pits. After 15 years, mining activities ramp down over a 11-month period. Feed to the process plant is supplemented from low grade stockpiles, the low-grade feed peaks at nearly 3.8Mt in Year 15. Feed to the process plant ceases after 19 years. The mining operating strategy has changed from contractor mining to an owner-operator model. The primary fleet has been sized to meet the monthly mine schedule and includes 120 t class excavators, nominal 100 t haul trucks, loaders, double road trains, drill rigs and ancillary equipment. The excavator fleet increases from one unit at start-up to a peak of four units later in the mine life, while haul truck fleet consists of 4 trucks for the first 5 years and then increases to 16 trucks as material movement and strip ratio increase.