A TERRITORY rare earths mine has set a date for opening - 2013.

Arafura Resources said it had stepped up its development program at Nolans Bore to meet the target date.

Chief executive Steve Ward said the drive was possible because of fund-raising earlier this year.

A logistics study has been finished and the contract for the final engineering studies needed for a feasibility study is to be awarded soon.

Chemical plant design studies are continuing.

Site selection work for the plant is in its final phase - several short-listed sites are being evaluated.

"This is a critical decision with long-term implications for the company and requires interaction and working with a number of stakeholders, including governments, regulators, landowners and communities," Mr Ward said.

Nolans Bore is a small mine on Aileron Station, 135km north of Alice Springs. It is Arafura's flagship project.

The tenement has an identified resource of about 18.6 million tonnes.

Thorium and uranium oxide will be mined asby-products.

About 850,000 tonnes of ore a year will be mined in an open pit to a depth of about 75m.

The mine is expected to operate for 20 years, although the project may be extended as drilling results are assessed.

Rock will be blasted and removed from the open pit in haul trucks.

A beneficiation plant at the site will crush, screen and wash the rock, and remove quartz and clay to concentrate the rare earths and phosphate-rich ore.

Most of the waste will put in a dump. But some will be used to build a tailings dam and road. Tailings, or waste from the washing process, will be stored in the dam or disposed of in the waste rock dump.

Perth-based Arafura said: "Wherever possible water will be recycled to the washing plant and for dust suppression.

"Waste rock will be stored away from natural water courses and creeks, with waste rock dumps engineered to minimise erosion and prevent contamination of surrounding areas."

The washed ore will be taken to a processing plant, probably in Darwin, where chemicals such as hydrochloric acid will leach out the rare earths, phosphate and minor amounts of uranium. Thorium residues will be returned to the mine for secure storage.