ARU - Till Year end 21, page-99

If you have been following the Fingerboards story closely it's no big surprise nor adds any more 'variables or complexity' to the min sands industry. A very vocal and determined group of Gippsland farmers/locals have opposed this mine for years and done a remarkable job of NIMBY scare mongering. I followed the story closely because SFX (which I hold) does not need the competition of a new world class zircon mine, which Fingerboards would have been.

You say "this was one of the more headline projects out there"... yet I know very few people even in the mineral sand business knew about or was following this privately owned project. If you were following the headlines , as they were, you would know it was on the nose for a long time. Reads to me like some holders of hard rock REE deposits pushing their own barrow on the back of Fingerboards misfortune, which is understandable because I did the same thing on SFX two weeks ago lol. Land use conflict between miners, environment and locals is hardly new in Oz. Further away from high-value agricultural or environmental land is better obviously, though only to a point. When you get into far-north outback middle of nowhere projects swap much higher logistical costs and NT issues for NIMBY issues... pick your poison.

In summary, big set back for Fingerboards but business as usual for the min sand industry. The big issue for min sand RE projects is the ubiquitous U&Th content of monazite from beach sand deposits, which has meant monazite con getting sold to China who have a more pragmatic approach to these things. ILU is looking to break that mould for Oz, and HYM potentially with Energy Fuels in the US. Specifically regards potential Australian min sand REE 'rich' projects, they are all in western Victoria and suffer from being very fine grained, high U&Th in zircon, chromite contamination of primary sulphate ilmenite. Yes they have to jump the usual permitting process, possibly exacerbated by higher U&Th, but it's th technical issues around producing a saleable product is first hurdle to jump.

REE is a by-product for all min sand deposits, so this new RE boom is a huge bonus for what has been generally put back in the pit with tailings. Min sands will not solve the worlds REE supply issues moving forward because only a modest number of potential new projects have material REE by-product and even then only a few can get developed because each project still relies on the primary products to muscle in and justify development. Primary products that pay the bills being ilmenite, rutile and zircon. Fingerboards (Gippsland not western Vic) is a world class deposit with multiple revenue streams. Below is a 2017 summary of the mine output, though I believe a 2019 update increased production and thus output by ~33% on these figures. Fingerboards would have produced similar REOtpa (in con) as LYCbut with a higher basket price of RE's (more heavies from xenotime). Not bad considering the cheap capex, opex and higher revenue per tonne from BOTH zircon and TiO2 minerals...

Cheap (almost free) monazite by-product credits cannot be beaten on cost obviously, but they will not dominate the RE market.