Wednesday, 17 October, 2007

by Alison Bevege
NT News

A $1.1 BILLION rare earths and uranium mine -including a $300 million processing plant in Darwin -is to be built in the Northern Territory.

Rare earths explorer Arafura Resources detailed its intentions for the Nolans Bore project near Aileron, 135km north of Alice Springs, in an pre-feasibility study released to the Australian Stock Exchange on Monday.

The company plans to build the mine by 2010, and to begin production in 2011.

Arafura then hopes to produce 20,000 tonnes a year of rare earths over 20 years from 2013.

Arafura managing director Alistair Stephens said the ore would be mined at Nolans Bore and freighted to Darwin by train.

It would then be processed at a $300 million plant to be built somewhere in the Darwin area. The facility would separate the ore components by acid leaching in tanks.

About 500,000 tonnes of calcium chloride, 150,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid, 20,000 tonnes of rare earths and up to 200 tonnes of uranium will be produced each year at the plant.

Calcium chloride is used as a road cementing agent while phosphoric acid is a fertiliser. Rare earths are used in mobile phones, LCD screens and hybrid electric cars.

After processing, the minerals would be exported from the Port of Darwin.

"The infrastructure in Darwin ideally suits - the port, the rail and access to gas," Mr Stephens said.

The company is also likely to use the new Vopak acid storage terminal.

Mr Stephens said the project would create about 30 jobs at the mine and a further 70 at the processing facility.

"It's big news for the Territory," he said.

The company said annual revenues would be $410 million and the capital cost of the project was estimated to be $750 million.