ESG

Miners get govt grants for downstream facilities

THREE ASX-listed miners have been awarded grants under the Australian government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative.

Staff reporter
 An artist's impression of Lynas' Kalgoorlie plant

An artist's impression of Lynas' Kalgoorlie plant

Lynas Rare Earths was awarded a A$14.8 million grant, which will enable the company to commercialise an industry-first rare earth carbonate refining process that has been developed by its in-house research and development team.

The new process has been tested at bench scale and has proven effective in producing a higher purity rare earth carbonate that can feed the Lynas Malaysia plant as well as the proposed US rare Earth processing facility.

The new process is expected to contribute to lower chemical consumption and processing costs.

The process will be installed during the construction of the company's new $500 million cracking and leaching plant in Kalgoorlie and the grant is expected to contribute about 50% of the implementation cost.

"We're excited to bring this world-first rare earth carbonate refining process to Kalgoorlie with the support of the Australian government," Lynas CEO Amanda Lacaze said.

"Its commercialisation is the culmination of significant research and development by our inhouse team.

"In keeping with our commitment to the efficient use of industry capital, this process has been designed to treat our own Mt Weld concentrate and concentrate from third party feedstock as other projects come on line in the future."

In the Northern Territory, Core Lithium was awarded a $6 million grant to investigate the potential for a future lithium hydroxide plant near the Finniss lithium mine.

Finniss will begin production next year and while concentrate will initially be exported, a scoping study is underway on downstream processing.

The scoping study will be followed up with feasibility studies with the support of the grant.

Australian Vanadium was successful in its application for a $3.69 million grant, which will allow the company to design, build and operation a vanadium battery electrolyte plant in WA and develop local vanadium redox flow battery prototypes.

The total cost of the project is $7.4 million.

Lynas shares surged 8.8% to $6.395, equal to a three-month high. Core jumped 10.2% to 27c, a six-week high, and Australian Vanadium was up 11.1% to 2c.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining News Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining News Intelligence team.

editions

MiningNews.net Research Report 2024

Access a multi-pronged tool to identify critical risks and opportunities in Australia’s mining industry.

editions

Mining Journal Intelligence Investor Sentiment Report 2024

Survey revealing the plans, priorities, and preferences of 120+ mining investors and their expectations for the sector in 2024.

editions

Mining Journal Intelligence Mining Equities Report 2023

Access an exclusive, inside look on the quarterly mining IPOs and secondary raisings data and mining equities performance tables with an annual Stock Exchange Comparisons supplement.

editions

Mining Journal Intelligence World Risk Report 2023 (feat. MineHutte ratings)

A detailed analysis of mining investment risks across 121 jurisdictions globally, built on 11 ‘hard risk’ metrics and an industrywide survey.