Arafura Rare Earths Limited will begin work onproject in coming...

Arafura Rare Earths Limited will begin work onproject in coming weeks

NT rare earths hopeful Arafura hasflagged the start of early construction works on its project near AliceSprings.

Camden Smith

Business Reporter

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March 7, 2023 - 6:30AM

NT rare earths hopeful Arafura Rare Earths Limitedhas flagged the start of early construction works on the $1.5bn project “incoming weeks”.

The forecast is contained in a statement to theAustralian Stock Exchange posted last week.

The statement announced Arafura had inked acontract to build a sulphuric acid plant on the site of its Nolans project near CentralAustralia.

The statement said Arafura had awarded itssulphuric acid plant contract to Chemetics Inc, a global supplier of sulphuricacid and other specialty chemical facilities wholly owned byAmerican-Australian energy infrastructure supplier Worley.

Arafura wants to develop a neodymium-praseodymium(NdPr) prospect at the Nolans prospect about 130km northwest of Alice Springs.

If built, the 40-year mine will have a constructionworkforce in excess of 600 people, an operational workforce of about 280 and itwill produce up to 5 per cent of the world’s magnet rare earths supply.

An Arafura spokesman confirmed the early workswould begin shortly.

“Initial equipment has been delivered to enable theestablishment of site roads that will provide access to future constructionareas and for clearing and preparation of the borefild area,” the spokesmansaid.

“At the moment there are only a handful of peopleon site but this will rise to approximately 30 as early works get underway.

“This is an important next step in delivery of theNolan’s Project and we are pleased to have reached this point in early 2023.”

It has been a significant few months in the life ofthe project with Korean car maker Hyundaisigning a binding seven-year contract to supply NdPr in November and the following month Gina Rinehart’s HancockProspecting invested $60m into the company.

Arafura’s ASX statement said Chemetics’ registeredplant process significantly reduced capital and maintenance costs and sulphurdioxide emissions from the plant.

‘The Chemetics plant is also significantly smallerthan a traditional sulphur burning acid plant allowing increased use ofmodulatirsation reducing the volume of site installation labour.

‘The initial work package includes finalisation ofspecifications and engineering design to allow the plant to be incorporatedinto the overall project design.’

Arafura general manager project Stewart Watkinssaid the company’s agreement with Chemetics was a significant development alongthe pathway to delivering the project.

“Letting the contract for the supply of the acidplant to a global supplier such as Chemetics provides confidence around theoutcomes for the project when the team reaches commissioning,” Mr Watkins said.

“Along with that, the progress made on theselection of our key vendors and placement of long lead orders means that weare set to commence early works construction in the coming weeks."

As well as the sulfuric acid plant, Arafura alsotold the ASX it had placed several other orders during recent weeks that arecritical to the project.

It had ordered sulfation baked and cooler paddledryers with Andritz to secure detailed design and long lead materials forfabrication as well as 8km of High Density Polyethylene piping for the mainwater supply pipeline from Nolans Bore to the plant site, which requires earlyconstruction works.

The company also booked potable and wastewatertreatment plans for the construction camp and equipment and tankage fortemporary construction of a water supply in advance of the pipeline beinginstalled at the site.

Arafura hoped the project would be exporting lastyear but delays in securing financing had blown out the company’s plans.

In August, Arafura’s managing director Gavin Lockyer said he hoped afinal investment decision would be signed-off by the end of 2022 and financialclose reached sometime this year.