It just dawned on me why extremely cheap in situ leach mining could be a genuine possibility after listening to the latest podcast.
Our highest grades are at the base of the saprolite in contact with the fresh impermeable bedrock which when combined with the gently undulating topography is the perfect sloping impermeable barrier to facilitate an ideal in situ leaching scenario with the saturated seepage occurring in the Ema high grade zone.
Research on the saturated/unsaturated seepage laws of ionic rare earth ore under different leaching conditions
In-situ leaching has the advantages of being a
simple process with low cost and low disruption, and is currently widely recommended (Deng et al., 2016; He et al., 2017). The schematic diagram of in situ leaching is shown in Figure 1. The permeability of the ore body has an important impact on the in situ leaching velocity and leaching rate, which are directly related to the efficient recovery and utilization of rare earth resources.
The seepage of in situ leaching is a dynamic process that includes two stages: unsaturated and saturated seepage. It is of great significance to study the saturated-unsaturated permeation characteristics of ionic rare earths under different leaching conditions to improve leaching efficiency.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/earth-science/articles/10.3389/feart.2023.1212017/full
Explorers Podcast: Brazilian Critical Minerals bringing unique metallurgy with low CapEx to Ema
https://st*ckhead.com.au/resources/explorers-podcast-brazilian-critical-minerals-bringing-unique-metallurgy-with-low-capex-to-ema/
Lots of exciting takeaways. Andrew's been sending samples to some major OEMs. Next week's webinar could be very, very interesting. The timeline to production could be much shorter than the high capex ops.
(20min delay)