Bio-mining will play a key role in Halleck Creeks feasibility studies leading into becoming a producer. Why? We have large deposit that using conventional methods of crushing, grinding & WHIMS increases our low grade deposit to 1.2%+from 0.33% Whilst modest upgrades will come using conventional methods, bio-mining is key to unlocking insane values and OPEX that will be unheard of in the mining sector. We must wait for studies to know by how much. This putting aside the coming upgraded JORC at Halleck, as we can only infer how massive our resource will become and have no way of gauging how high our 3300ppm grades will go. With bio-oxidation the gangue/waste removed could be north of 90% aided by the traditional methods we know can remove 77% of the gangue at Halleck today. Leveraging the old and new is a game changer. These tiny critters can bind to neodymium and praseodymium in allenite deposits with ease. The researchers seem only to be tweaking them to be more efficent and to remove more of the gangue. As the world’s resources of high grade deposits are depleted, we will have to mine lower grade deposits out of necessity, and use technological advances to do so. Previously uneconomical deposits will become more economical to extract than high and low grade deposits being mined today are. Demand will outpace supply for at least a decade, leading to higher market prices. Coupled with the inevitability of China’s impending export ban of these metals and their stated goal of taking Taiwan this decade, leads to immense benefits to all REE explorers and producers. We are all aware of how crucial these materials are to civilisation and how vital it is for the US to shore up their own supplies, not only to aid in the green economy transition but for almost all technologies use some % of REE’s.
The environmental benefits to using already known proven bio-mining methods such as bio-leaching which is undeniably better for the environment and will boost our ESG rating as a producer with respect to our peers. Tradtional leaching leads to many environmental hazards that have knock on effects for the region being mined, leaving behind nasty chemicals that destroy land, are toxic for people and contaminate water supplies. Whilst bio-leaching is a closed system with little to no negative effects environmentally nor can a closed system be hazardous to people. Dependant on methods the company chooses leverage.
Mel is well suited with her background in the DRC as our ESG compliance officer. Our company will only become successful in the US with respect to ESG and permitting as the US has very stringent environmental regulations than say Australia. Even China has begun to clean up the environmental mess REE production has done to their mined regions and the damages this has caused neighbouring communities with respect to health.
Taking a look at one of our peers as a comparison ARU: Their TREO stands at about 1.4Mt with an expected 38 year mine life. Their MC has been north of $1.4B AUD. What is fare value for American Rare Earths when approaching their stage of development? IMO a MC between $5-8B USD. As demand will outpace supply for the aforementioned decade or more,* market prices of NdPr will soar adding to what is about $130USD/kg on average. I’d suspect $130/kg will be a price floor over the next 20-30 years.
Lots of rambling all IMO mostly…. Figures and whatnot are somewhat accurate but please take them with a grain of salt as this was written from memory and without coffee or much care to read what i've written. Take note that bio-leaching and bio-oxidation are different in that oxidation rids the waste leaving NdPr and leaching binds to NdPr in liquids for ease of separation.
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