Nolans
http://www.arultd.com
rare-earths, phosphate, uraniumcamp, FiFo
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NT,
State: NT,
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The Nolans Rare Earths Phosphate and Uranium Project, that is located in the Northern Territory, 135 kilometres north west of Alice Springs and 10 kilometres west of the Aileron Roadhouse on the Stuart Highway, is on track to begin production in 2019. The Nolans mine is wholly owned by Arafura Resources and will be a global long term supplier of rare earths producing around 20,000 tonnes annually.
Nolans Deposit Discovered in 1995
The Nolans Rare Earths, Phosophate and Uranium Project gets its name from the nearby Nolans Bore that, before it was decommissioned, was a pastoral water bore. The deposit that was discovered in 1995, is in a remote location in that the nearest residential environment is 13 kilometres away to the south east at the Aileron Station and its adjacent roadhouse that services traffic passing along the Stuart Highway travelling between Alice Springs and Darwin. The next nearest population of people is 59 kilometres north at Ti-Tree. The mine is also near the Adelaide to Darwinrailway line.There is a well maintained track leading from the Aileron Roadhouse to the Nolans Bore site that is around 650 metres above sea level within a flat plain crossed by Kerosene Camp Creek on the western side ofthe deposit to be mined.
Nolans Ore to be Initially Processed On-site
It was originally planned to have the rare earths ore mined at the Nolans site to be taken to Wyhalla for processing but the company is now intending to build the plant at the mine site for economic reasons.Nolans Bore Deposit is one of the Largest in the World
The Nolans Bore deposit is one of the most intensively explored and largest rare earths ore bodies in the world. Its most abundant minerals being monazite, allanite and fluorapatite. Overall, it has a highly prized mix of rare earths that contains a total of 47 million tonnes of mineral resources averaging around 2.6 percent of REO (rare earths oxides) with more than half of these resources classified as being high confidence Indicated and Measured Resources. The Indicated and MeasuredResource at Nolans Bore rare earths deposit has beenreported to be sufficient to support mining at the site forat least the next 20 to 30 years.The forecast life of mine of the Nolans Rare Earths Phosphate-UraniumProject is based on the mining of seven million tonnes of ore a year for the initial eight years after production commences, increasing to 15million tonnes annually thereafter, producing an average of 1.5 million tonnes a year over the life of the operation.
Nolans Mine to be Worked as an Open Cut Operation
It is proposed to mine the ore body at the Nolans mine by the conventional open cut method using standard beneficiation techniques. The open cut operation will consist of drilling, blasting, shovel and haulage truck methods. Mining will provide the material for the ROM (run-of-mine) pad from where feed will be fed into a concentrator to be built on-site. The concentrator will comprise beneficiation circuits as well as a comminution circuit.Arafura Resources has already successfully created a mixed rare earths carbonate during testing in 2009. In 2012 it successfully separated rare earths oxide products from its Nolans Bore concentrate. The productsproduced were tested and found to be 99 percent pure. Arafura Resources will produce, Cerium Oxide, Didymium Oxide, HRE Oxide, Lanthanum Oxide and SEG Oxide from its Nolans mine operation. Thorium, iron and aluminium will be removed as solids during purification and uranium will be recovered as a result of the filtrate passing through an ion exchange procedure. Phosphate will be another co-product of the processing procedure.
