Arafura Rare Earths Limited will begin work on project in coming weeks

NT rare earths hopeful Arafura has flagged the start of early construction works on its project near Alice Springs.

NT rare earths hopeful Arafura Rare Earths Limited has flagged the start of early construction works on the $1.5bn project “in coming weeks”.

The forecast is contained in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange posted last week.

The statement announced Arafura had inked a contract to build a sulphuric acid plant on the site of its Nolans project near Central Australia.

The statement said Arafura had awarded its sulphuric acid plant contract to Chemetics Inc, a global supplier of sulphuric acid and other specialty chemical facilities wholly owned by American-Australian energy infrastructure supplier Worley.

Arafura wants to develop a neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) prospect at the Nolans prospect about 130km northwest of Alice Springs.

Arafura Rare Earths Limited’s Nolans Project near Alice Springs.

If built, the 40-year mine will have a construction workforce in excess of 600 people, an operational workforce of about 280 and it will produce up to 5 per cent of the world’s magnet rare earths supply.

An Arafura spokesman confirmed the early works would begin shortly.

“Initial equipment has been delivered to enable the establishment of site roads that will provide access to future construction areas and for clearing and preparation of the borefild area,” the spokesman said.

“At the moment there are only a handful of people on site but this will rise to approximately 30 as early works get underway.

“This is an important next step in delivery of the Nolan’s Project and we are pleased to have reached this point in early 2023.”

It has been a significant few months in the life of the project with Korean car maker Hyundai signing a binding seven-year contract to supply NdPr in November and the following month Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting invested $60m into the company.

Arafura’s ASX statement said Chemetics’ registered plant process significantly reduced capital and maintenance costs and sulphur dioxide emissions from the plant.

‘The Chemetics plant is also significantly smaller than a traditional sulphur burning acid plant allowing increased use of modulatirsation reducing the volume of site installation labour.

‘The initial work package includes finalisation of specifications and engineering design to allow the plant to be incorporated into the overall project design.’

Arafura general manager project Stewart Watkins said the company’s agreement with Chemetics was a significant development along the pathway to delivering the project.

“Letting the contract for the supply of the acid plant to a global supplier such as Chemetics provides confidence around the outcomes for the project when the team reaches commissioning,” Mr Watkins said.

Work’s not far from beginning at Arafura Rare Earths Limited’s Nolans Project near Alice Springs.

“Along with that, the progress made on the selection of our key vendors and placement of long lead orders means that we are set to commence early works construction in the coming weeks."

As well as the sulfuric acid plant, Arafura also told the ASX it had placed several other orders during recent weeks that are critical to the project.

It had ordered sulfation baked and cooler paddle dryers with Andritz to secure detailed design and long lead materials for fabrication as well as 8km of High Density Polyethylene piping for the main water supply pipeline from Nolans Bore to the plant site, which requires early construction works.

The company also booked potable and wastewater treatment plans for the construction camp and equipment and tankage for temporary construction of a water supply in advance of the pipeline being installed at the site.

Arafura hoped the project would be exporting last year but delays in securing financing had blown out the company’s plans.

In August, Arafura’s managing director Gavin Lockyer said he hoped a final investment decision would be signed-off by the end of 2022 and financial close reached sometime this year.