TANBREEZ Rare Earth Element Project Presentation

Transcription

1 TANBREEZ Rare Earth Element Project Presentation Greenland Day 4 th December, 2012

2 TANBREEZ Ore Body

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5 Unique Features of TANBREEZ No uranium or thorium issues Multi-element deposit More than 4.3 billion tonnes of ore Privately owned Relatively high concentrations of heavy rare earths Valuable elements all contained within one mineral, eudialyte Eudialyte is simply upgraded by magnetic separation Traditional chemical separation can be used to recover rare earths tantalum, niobium and zirconium Has other potential by-products such as feldspar, nepheline, gold and silica

6 TANBREEZ Project Status Exploration license granted in 2001 and renewed in Definitive feasibility study (DFS) has been submitted to the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum (BMP) in Greenland in March 2012 with a view to obtaining an exploitation license, the DFS includes:- Social Impact Assessment (SIA) Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Assessment of geology and mining process Technical review of ore treatment methods A review of the support infrastructure necessary to operate the mine and processing plant Applications to Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum (BMP) for granting exploitation license Physical upgrading of eudialyte has been completed at a semi-commercial level. Chemical treatment flow-sheet has been drafted based on laboratory scale testing Chemical test programme is ongoing.

7 SITE VIEW Ore body with Fosters Lake in foreground

8 TANBREEZ - Project Outline The project is based on initially mining the ore body at a rate of 500,000 tonnes/year of ore from two open cut mines increasing to 3-5 million tons as the need arises. Ore is mined and hauled to the treatment plant located on the adjacent fjord. The treatment plant crushes the ore to less than 0.6mm and passes it to magnetic separators where it is sorted into magnetic, slightly magnetic and non-magnetic particles. No chemicals are used. Initially 100,000 tonnes/year of eudialyte concentrate will be produced together with 200,000 tonnes/year of feldspar concentrate and 200,000 tonnes/year of arfvedsonite. Plans are to extend beyond this as markets develop. Both concentrates are stockpiled and loaded onto bulk carriers for treatment off-shore.

9 The TANBREEZ ore body is contained within a rock type known as Kakortokite. Eudialyte is the primary mineral of value in the TANBREEZ deposit. Eudialyte is a zircono-silicate mineral in the deposit and carries zircon, niobium and the rare earths. Eudialyte occurs both as an interstitial mineral and a primary.

10 TANBREEZ Ore Body The Kakortokite ore body is exposed over an area of 5 km X 2.5 km on the southern side of the Kangerluarsuk fjord. The exposed sequence rises to over 400m above sea level. The exposed area comprises 95% Kakortokite and 5% waste. Kakortokite Drilling

11 TANBREEZ Ore Body Boundaries The Kakortokite ore body merges into a border zone orebody of massive, equi-granular nepheline syenite, often described as marginal or basal pegmatite This transitional Zone is about 150m wide at sea level decreasing to approx 25m wide at 400 m above sea level. This zone is also economic The Border Zone has a well defined contact to the outer Augite Syenite whereas the boundary of the Border Zone to the Kakortokite is gradual Drilling The Bonder Zone

12 Structure of the Deposit The layered Kakortokite consists of 51 units with the majority labeled +1 to +20 and -1 to -17 above and below respectively to the datum unit 0 while fault separate sections contain other sediments. The layering stands out clearly from the distance however it is not always as obvious at close. Layers come in 3 types red, white and black all are economic for eudialyte. Some layers are faint, others are much more strongly marked because of the difference in enrichment of the valuable minerals. There are pronounced thickness variations between layers as well as distinctions in texture and grain size. On average a layer is 8m thick (3.5m to 12m) however it is not always fully developed and in some cases black or red layers are very faint or missing entirely.

13 Eudialyte is a sodium rich zirconosilicate mineral with constant amounts of contained elements including rare earths, zircon, niobium and tantalum. Chemical formula of eudialyte is: Na 15 Ca 6 Fe 3 Zr 3 Si(Si 25 O 75 )(O,OH,H 2 O) 3 (C l,oh) 3 Eudialyte is virtually the only Zircon bearing mineral in the Kakortokite and of the primary minerals it is the only rare earth bearing mineral. A linear correlation has been shown to exist between ZrO 2 and the various contained rare earths tantalum, niobium, hafnium etc. metals.

14 Nb 2 O 5 (ppm) Dy 2 O 3 (ppm) Analyses of over two thousand samples, covering the lower part of the Kakortokite ore body and the border zone show that ZrO 2 has a close linear correlation with niobium and tantalum as well as the heavy and light rare earth elements. ZrO 2 vs Nb 2 O 5 ZrO 2 vs Dy 2 O ZrO 2 (%) Nb2O ZrO 2 (%) Dy2O3

15 TANBREEZ Rare earth suite Contained rare earths heavy 27%, light 73%. Praseodymium (Pr); 3,9% Cerium (Ce); 35,6% Gadolinium (Gd); 2,3% Samarium (Sm); 2,5% Neodymium (Nd); 13% Europium (Eu); 0,3% Terbium (Tb); 0,5% TANBREEZ: Total of Light and Heavy REE Dysprosium (Dy); 2,9% Holmium (Ho); 0,6% Erbium (Er); 1,9% Thulium (Tm); 0,3% Ytterbium (Yb); 1,9% Yttrium (Y); 16% Lutetium (Lu); 0,3% Lanthanum (La); 18,1% Gadolinium (Gd) Terbium (Tb) Dysprosium (Dy) Holmium (Ho) Erbium (Er) Thulium (Tm) Ytterbium (Yb) Yttrium (Y) Lutetium (Lu) Lanthanum (La) Cerium (Ce) Praseodymium (Pr) Neodymium (Nd) Samarium (Sm) Europium (Eu)

16 7. Shipping TANBREEZ Site Processing Overview Mine Area 1. Drill and blast Loading 2. Coarse rock removal Loading 3. Truck Haulage road Haulage road Haulage road Process Area 6. Storage 4. Crushing and grinding 5. Sizing and magnetic separation Eudialyte Feldspar Eudialyte Feldspar Feeders & conveyors Pipeline Arfvedsonite Local sales Waste Foster Lake

17 PHYSICAL SEPARATION PLANT DESCRIPTION The separation process is a dry magnetic process, no chemicals or reagents are added. Ore is hauled from the mining pit to the crushing plant. Ore is crushed and screened to less than 25mm and transferred to the grinding plant. Crushed ore is fed to High Pressure Grinding Rolls and air classification for size reduction to less than 600 microns with particles finer than 45 microns discarded to the tailings fraction. Dry high intensity magnetic separation is performed on the sized ore in four stages allowing grade and recovery variability dependant on ore characteristics. Two concentrates are produced; eudialyte and feldspar, both are shipped in bulk form for further processing overseas. It is possible the coarser grained arfvedsonite will find a market in the local constitution market. Plant tailings consisting of a slurry of arfvedsonite, the magnetic fraction, and the fines fraction is pumped to Foster Lake by a multi stage pumping system.

18 TANBREEZ Project Plan

19 TANBREEZ Port and plant site layout

20 TANBREEZ Plant and Port Site

21 Power plant Process plant Port Accommodation blocks, laboratories and centre facilities Water treatment plant Incinerator and trash storage Heliport Fuel tanks Sewage plant Workshop (trucks, machine, wash, electrical, spare part storage) Storage for blasted ore Concentrate storage facilities for eudialyte and feldspar Container storage area

22 TANBREEZ Tailings management Previous studies and the current E.I.S indicate that there are no acid drainage or metals leaching concerns. Foster Lake is to be used as a tailings pond. Barren surroundings, a lack of significant fauna and no evidence of fish in Foster Lake mitigate any environmental concerns. A slurry pipeline located alongside the access road will be used for the transportation of tailings from the process plant to Foster Lake The return water from Foster Lake is to be mixed with tailings to form a high density slurry for pumping to the tailings pond. The return water system will be fitted with hydro generators for power recovery.

23 TAILINGS DAM SITE FOSTER LAKE

24 DEFINITIVE FEASIBILITY STUDY A Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) has been totally undertaken by indipendent consultants and the study was performed by Danish engineers M.T.Hojgaard. This study has reviewed the geological, mining, metallurgical, environmental and social issues associated with developing the project. In performing the DFS M.T.Hojgaard has utilised data developed by appropriate laboratories, consultants and testing facilities that are qualified to perform the relevant tests. These groups have included AMMTEC, University of Western Australia, Golder s, Orbicon and Carl Bro. The DFS has reviewed all aspects of the project performed in Greenland.

25 Current Metallurgical Research Recent metallurgical and mineralogical test-work has been conducted by AMMTEC, Roger Townend & Associates and the University of Western Australia. Research for the process design is based on two distinct phases:- Physical Research that has focused on the following:- A mineralogical review to understand the structure and sizing of the valuable components. Crushing, grinding and abrasion indexes this has shown that there are no constraints for the use of conventional equipment High pressure grinding roll criteria this is well within industry standards Multi-stage magnetic separation four stage separation that allows versatility of flow-sheet design. After some 10 years research the company has developed a unique process for the dissolution of eudialyte to produce high quality daughter oxides.

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27 Millions of Tonnes World Zirconium Resource Base TANBREEZ Soluble Australia Insoluble Zirconium South Africa 20 Ukraine 10 US 0 TANBREEZ Australia South Africa Ukraine US Brazil Brazil

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