Browns Range rare earths pilot plant commissioned

Australia-based metals developer Northern Minerals said it has become the world's first dysprosium and terbium producer outside of China with the commissioning of its Browns Range heavy rare earths pilot plant project in Western Australia.

The project will run for three years to assess the economic and technical feasibility of establishing a full-scale project, the company said. It will process around 60,000 t/yr of ore to produce an estimated 148,200kg of dysprosium from around 1.7mn t of rare earth oxides in the three-year period.

Dysprosium and terbium are essential ingredients for permanent magnets that go into electric motors for applications such as electric vehicles and wind turbines. Dysprosium neodymium iron-boron magnets are used in clean energy and high-technology solutions.

The Browns Rrange deposit was discovered in 2010. The pilot plant project was started in April last year and modules for the processing plant were made in China and assembled on site from October last year.

Northern Minerals has a sales agreement with China's Lianyugang Zeyu New Materials Sales for all planned output from the pilot plant. Lianyugang is a subsidiary of Guangdong Rare Earths, one of China's major vertically integrated rare earths producers.