Hi Anndy,Post #:51026156 ; Good question re. NTU xenotime...

Hi Anndy,

Post #:51026156 ; Good question re. NTU xenotime concentrate pricing, I can't find anything specific for any RE mineral concentrate but I'm willing to have guestimate.

According to the Shanghai Metals Market REO spot pricing for earlier in February, the 'basket' REO value/Kg from the Brown's Range ore is around US$61.60. Given the REO content of the NTU's xenotime concentrate is 20%, the basket REO value of 1Kg of Browns Range xenotime concentrate should be approx. US$12.32.

Then you have to factor in transportation costs from mine to processor, processing losses, processors costs & margins, government duties, taxes, ect. ect. etc... How much is all this? lets take a wild punt and say 50%.

So, lets say US$6.16Kg at the mine gate. 585,000 tpa fed into the benification plant will produce 16,700 tpa of xenotime concentrate @ 20% TREO.
16,700 tpa x US$6.16/Kg = US$102,872,000 in potential revenue p/a. Not bad!

Of course we will have to wait for the feasibility study to see NTU's estimates, but if you have any real world pricing for xenotime concentrate or processing costs please enlighten us.

Re. the Th/U levels, this is common to most RE projects, but Brown's Range xenotime ore is relativly low in Th(28ppm)& U3O8(26ppm), particularly when compared to Mt Weld monazite; Th(700ppm)& U3O8(20ppm) or Mountain Pass bastnäsite; Th(250ppm) &U3O8(?). As LYC has learned to it's cost the political danger of trying to export your Th problem to oversees processors can be expensive; A$500m in LYC's case.