<article><p class="lead">Australian mineral sands producer Iluka Resources is engaging extensively with the Australian government regarding the development of a fully integrated rare earth refinery at its Eneabba project in Western Australia (WA).</p><p>The Perth-based firm has received a letter signed by two federal government ministers welcoming a revised refinery development proposal and looking forward to the outcome of a feasibility study underway and an independent due diligence process.</p><p>Trade, tourism and investment minister Dan Tehan and resources minister Keith Pitt met with Iluka's board of directors in March and followed this up with an official letter on 10 May.</p><p>"The Morrison government is focused on growing the critical minerals sector, capturing more value from our resources by moving into downstream processing and diversifying global supply chains," the letter said. "To this end, Iluka's proposed refinery, if executed, would be capable of processing some third-party rare earth concentrates, in addition to Iluka's own monazite, subject to securing commercial agreement. This could help develop new Australian mines by reducing capital expenditure and risks for those projects."</p><p>Iluka, a globally significant producer of zircon, rutile and ilmenite from projects in Australia and Sierra Leone, expects key elements of the refinery feasibility study to be completed in late 2021. It sees entering the rare earth market as "logical diversification" and has begun funding discussions with export credit agency Export Finance Australia (EFA), including seeking a non-recourse loan facility.</p><p>EFA and the Critical Minerals Facilitation Office (CMFO) consider the project to be broadly in line with the government's critical mineral policy objectives. The CMFO is the Australian government's central coordination point to grow the country's critical mineral sector.</p><p>Iluka has a stockpile of monazite and xenotime (rare earth-bearing minerals) at its Eneabba mineral sands project containing neodymium-praseodymium, as well as heavy rare earths and yttrium.</p><p>It also has around 5pc rare earth oxide containing dysprosium, terbium and yttrium within its Wimmera large-scale mineral sands deposit in Victoria.</p><p>A fully integrated rare earth refinery would include concentration, cracking and leaching and separating and finishing facilities to formulate rare earth mixtures and individual rare earth products.</p><p>Australia's major rare earth producer Lynas Rare Earths mines its raw material at Mt Weld in WA and ships it to its plant at Kuantan in Malaysia for downstream processing. It is in the early stages of establishing an additional processing plant at Kalgoorlie in WA, which is expected to come into production in mid-2023.</p><p class="bylines">By Angus Macmillan </p></article>
