Metallurgical testwork at Victory Metals’ North Stanmore Rare Earth Element (REE) project in WA has delivered the goods – increasing the feed grades by up to 148% with simple physical beneficiation.

And being highly amenable to upstream beneficiation could also potentially reduce downstream processing costs and capital costs per product tonne.

The average TREYO head grade from the 31 AC drill samples from the JORC Resource modelling area was increased from 1308 ppm to 2192 ppm through rejecting +20 μm coarse material.

This resulted in an average REE upgrade of 68%, with corresponding REE recovery of 58% and mass rejection of 66%.

“In simple terms, by rejecting the +20 μm coarse material not only did Victory’s total rare earth oxide grade (TREO) significantly increase, the testwork program has also demonstrated that 58% of the rare earth concentration can be recovered by only processing 34.7% of the ore,” Victory Metals (ASX:VTM) CEO and executive director Brendan Clark said.

Notably, size by assay analysis shows that up to 70% of rare earths are hosted in the fine -20μm size fraction, in as low as 28% of the total mass.

Could reduce operating and capital costs

The company is confident that the rejection of low-grade ore and subsequent increase in downstream REE feed grade is likely to reduce downstream reagent consumption and equipment sizing, thereby significantly reducing operating and capital costs for the overall circuit.

“Metallurgical beneficiation has led to significant improvements in the plant feed grade of rare earth elements at North Stanmore, with the success of this program proving the high potential to reduce downstream processing and capital costs per product tonne at North Stanmore,” Clark said.

“Victory’s initial JORC Mineral Resource Estimate is expected to be reported to the market in the coming weeks, along with these very positive results from this beneficiation testwork program and the excellent metallurgical recoveries that have already being reported paving the way for an exciting future for Victory and its shareholders.”

Metallurgical flowsheet development underway

The testwork was undertaken by Core Resources (ASX:CXO) in Brisbane, with the Stage 2 metallurgical testwork program now underway, including flow sheet design to produce a mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) as the end product. 

“The recent beneficiation testwork has shown the potential to substantially increase the grade of rare earth elements in North Stanmore ore with simple physical beneficiation,” Core said.

“This work follows prior successful leach testing on North Stanmore samples and will complement ongoing Stage 2 leach optimisation testwork.

“Core looks forward to continuing the work with Victory Metals to ultimately develop the metallurgical flowsheet for the North Stanmore project.”

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Victory Metals Limited, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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