Partnership with Lindian Resources involves a 15-year offtake agreement and a construction loan for the project in the Southeastern African country.
Australian mining company Iluka Resources has entered into a long-term offtake agreement with Lindian Resources, developer of the Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi. Under the deal (PDF), Lindian will supply 6,000 tons of monazite concentrate annually to Iluka over 15 years, representing approximately 10% of the refining capacity in its Eneabba facility once the plant becomes operational in 2027. To support the development of Kangankunde, Iluka will also provide Lindian with a US$20 million (A$32 million) construction loan.
The monazite concentrate will be processed at Iluka’s Eneabba refinery, which is set to become Australia’s first fully integrated rare earths processing facility, capable of producing separated light and heavy rare earth oxides. Eneabba will use feedstock from Iluka’s internal operations as well as third-party suppliers like Lindian.
According to Lindian, the Kangankunde deposit contains 5.72 million tons of total rare earth oxides (TREO), of which 20.2 percent are neodymium and praseodymium. This positions Kangankunde among the largest and highest-grade rare earth deposits globally. In April last year, the company received the final permit from the Malawi authorities to develop the project.
Lindian is not the only company advancing rare earth projects in Malawi. Canadian explorer Mkango Resources is also active in the country and last year signed a mining development agreement with the Malawian government (we reported).
Photo: iStock/buranatrakul
