Lynas awarded $20m Australian Government grant

Lynas Rare Earths has announced it has been awarded a $20 million grant as part of the Australian Government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative — Manufacturing Integration Stream.

The grant will contribute to the development of a new capability to process apatite-rich ores from the Mt Weld ore body through a newly developed process containing two circuits for the removal of apatite. The grant will partially fund the Apatite Leach Circuit which will be established at Lynas’s Mt Weld site near Laverton, Western Australia.

The process was developed in collaboration with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and Mt Weld Mining Pty Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of Lynas Rare Earths Limited) and is expected to deliver significant benefits to the industry and to Australia’s trading partners, including:

• 90 jobs that are expected to be created during the project which this grant will partially fund, comprising 80 construction roles and 10 skilled, full-time jobs once operational.
• Further engagement with Australian universities to support ongoing process optimisation of the Apatite Leach Circuit and to strengthen critical minerals capability and upskill science and engineering students as they prepare to enter the workforce.
• The expectation of increased recoveries of praseodymium, neodymium and dysprosium from apatite-rich ores within the Mt Weld ore body, which are key inputs to the technologies needed for the global energy transition.
• Increased recoveries and output from the Mt Weld ore body will serve growing demand from manufacturing supply chains in Australia’s trading partners in East Asia, Europe and North America.
   

The Apatite Leach Circuit project will be undertaken as part of the Mt Weld expansion project, which is scheduled for completion by end of calendar year 2024.

Commenting on the awarding of the grant, Amanda Lacaze, Lynas Rare Earths CEO and Managing Director, said: “Lynas is delighted to receive this support from the Australian Government for the development of the Apatite Leach Circuit project at Mt Weld.

“It is very pleasing that this project will be undertaken in collaboration with ANSTO and with the involvement of students from Australian universities who are the future of the critical minerals industry.

“In addition to supporting the development of industry capability, the processing of apatite-rich ore will help to unlock additional value from the Mt Weld ore body with the goal of extending the operating life of both the mine at Mt Weld and the Lynas rare earths processing facility in Kalgoorlie.”

“ANSTO has had a longstanding relationship with Lynas Rare Earths over the last two decades,” said Dr Karin Soldenhoff, Acting General Manager Minerals, ANSTO. “The Apatite Leach Circuit aims to maximise the value recovered from the significant rare earth resource at Mt Weld by developing and implementing a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable technology, which will allow increased proportions of apatite to be processed using Lynas’s current process flowsheet.

“ANSTO has provided to the Apatite Leach Circuit project key technical guidance and laboratory testing of the proposed process flowsheet. Following the award of this MMI grant by the Australian Government, we look forward to working with Lynas on the implementation of the project on a commercial scale.’’

Image credit: Lynas Rare Earths Ltd.