Debt financing completed for Australia’s first combined rare earth mine and processing plant, construction start moving closer.
In northern Australia, domestic mining company Arafura Rare Earths Limited is developing its Nolans Rare Earth Project, the country’s first combined mine and processing plant for the critical raw materials, namely neodymium-praseodymium. Another important step has now been achieved, as Arafura announced in the report (PDF) for the second quarter published on Tuesday: Conditional approval has been received for the debt financing strategy of more than one billion US dollars.
The support from Australian and international credit agencies and commercial lenders underlines the geostrategic importance of Nolans in diversifying the supply chain, Managing Director Darryl Cuzzubbo said. The final investment decision is expected by the end of the year, with construction to start immediately thereafter.
Arafura has already concluded purchase agreements for its products with the South Korean car manufacturers Hyundai and Kia, the US car manufacturer General Electric and the Spanish-German wind energy company Siemens Gamesa. Currently, most of the rare earths mined in Australia are processed abroad; Lynas, for example, ships its raw material to Malaysia, but has also recently commissioned a domestic processing plant.
Photo: TRADIUM GmbH
