Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd (ASX: GGG) has announced a technical breakthrough in the beneficiation of the rare earths and uranium (REE-U)elements and minerals proposed to bemined at Kvanefjeld. In a 15-hour pilot test GGG has successfully produced a higher-grade mineral concentrate using a simple flotation process. How much more testing is required to determine whether this method is applicable and scalable for the tonnages proposed?
CEO Rod McIllree The breakthrough in beneficiation came about when we identified an effective means of isolating the key economic mineral group at Kvanefjeld with bench-scale work. We’ve now scaled that up to the next level in a pilot test, and have achieved a highly successful outcome. Flotation is a proven technique across the minerals sector, and there’s nothing to indicate that further up-scaling will be problematic. As a result, we’re confident the beneficiation circuit will be suited to the ore we’re looking to process, and to the scale at which we want to mine. Beneficiation was always going to bring about major improvements in overall efficiency as well as reductions in capital and operating costs. Whilst there’s more optimisation work to do, several of the main technical developments have now been achieved with the rest to be announced in the coming months. It is rare to find projects that offer the potential to effectively increase the ore grades by more than 10 times through a simple beneficiation step. This is a very important development in the evolution of the Kvanefjeld project. The piloting has also been important in that it has generated bulk mineral concentrate which we can use to conduct downstream leaching studies, enabling us to identify the most effective leaching method. We anticipate having technical updates on the leach studies through the coming months.
If successful on a larger scale, how will the beneficiation process affect your current feasibility studies, including forecast production and earnings, and what changes will it mean for your current estimates of the resource base?
CEO Rod McIllree The resource base at Kvanefjeld is already very large, and initial resource calculations are due out for two new satellite deposits in early 2012. Given the advantage of having a very large resource base, our focus has been on establishing the most efficient and cost-effective way to process the material. We’ve also been conscious of identifying a development scenario with the least market risk. The breakthrough in beneficiation provides a clear path to a more efficient operation, and also brings about greater flexibility: treating a higher-grade, lower-mass mineral concentrate opens up more leaching options than were previously available. We’re aiming for a primary leach stage that effectively leaches uranium and heavy REEs, and we’ve identified a number of solution chemistries to do this. Under this scenario light REEs remain with the mineral residue, but in an easily leachable form. This would see Kvanefjeld developed as a uraniumheavy REE project that also produces a very large light REE-rich stockpile. The stockpile can then be processed independently of the uranium-heavy REE leach circuit. Importantly, this removes the market risk of being dependant on producing, and having to sell a vast volume of light REEs, but leaves us the option of cheaply producing large volumes of light REE product according to demand.
Would implementation of the beneficiation process require significant additional cost in the engineering, planning and construction of the proposed plant?
CEO Rod McIllree The beneficiation circuit will require additional investment, but that will be more than offset by the substantial cost saving associated with the significant downsizing of the hydrometallurgical leach circuits, which currently account for a large proportion of overall capital costs. From a metallurgical perspective, it will mean the leach stage of Kvanefjeld doesn’t have to be a large, high-capital-cost processing plant, as we’re now looking to treat less than 20% of the original mass at much higher grades.
