https://www.miningreview.com/speciality-metals/ionicre-moves-to-6...

https://www.miningreview.com/speciality-metals/ionicre-moves-to-60-ownership-of-makuutu-rare-earths-project/

IonicRE moves to 60% ownership of Makuutu rare earths project

Mining Review Africa Apr 13, 2023

The Board of Ionic Rare Earths (IonicRE) has advised, that following on from the positive Makuutu Stage 1 DFS which showed that Makuutu would have an initial 35-year mine life with EBITDA of A$2.29 billion and an IRR of 32.7%.

Subsequent advice that approval from the Ugandan Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development to progress the construction of a technical facility and Demonstration Plant at the Makuutu Mine Site had been received, that the company has moved to 60% ownership of Ugandan subsidiary Rwenzori Rare Metals which owns 100% of the Makuutu Rare Earths Project.

The company continues to engage with stakeholders in the Ugandan Government on the status of Mining Licence Application (MLA) TN03834 over the central Makuutu tenement RL 1693.

Pleasingly, the Ministry has made progress in upgrading its mineral licencing system to align it with the provisions of the Mining and Mineral Act 2022 and is in the final stages of developing the Mineral and Mineral Licencing Regulations, 2023.

Demonstration plant construction at Makuutu rare earths project
The company is progressing the construction of a technical facility at the Makuutu mine site required to validate and optimise metallurgical test work and provide a foundation for grade control, mine design, material handling, metallurgical reconciliation and scale up construction activity to support the commercial Project financing process.

As this represents a significant capital expenditure, prudent engineering management requires a suitable demonstration be conducted for a representative period of time in order to de-risk the entire process chain of MREC production from mining to transportation to potential customer facilities.

The Makuutu demonstration plant will be one of the first large scale ionic adsorption technical facilities outside of China and represents the initial phase of development at Makuutu.

The demonstration facility will consolidate further metallurgical test work, including an extensive scale up program from 3 m to 6 m tall heap desorption columns and 6 m tall heap desorption cribs, which will be conducted and signed off by a series of independent competent persons.