Overview

Mine Type	Open Pit
Stage	Permitting
Commodities	REE
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	Nolans is a world-class, shovel-ready Australian NdPr project that will supply ~4% of the world's NdPr oxide demand. During the 2023 Financial year, Monadelphous was selected as the preferred construction contractor for the Nolans Project hydrometallurgical plant and commenced ECI engagement with Arafura. More recently, MACA Interquip was selected as the preferred contractor for the Project’s beneficiation plant and similarly engaged to complete an ECI phase to optimise the plant’s design. A wide range of enabling works and early construction activities on site at the Nolans Project commenced in the second half of 2023 financial year. In effect, Arafura has ‘broken ground’ on site and established the infrastructure and services required to support an ongoing construction workforce, setting the stage for a move to full construction.

Deposit type

• Vein / narrow vein
• Pegmatite

Summary:

The Nolans Bore deposit is spatially close to several tin and tantalum pegmatites, and REE-bearing carbonatite/alkaline complexes (Mud Tank and Mordor Igneous Complex). This mineral field of carbonatites, pegmatites, and other REE occurrences is in a region transacted by three major lineaments delineated by O’Driscoll, which include the north–northwest trending G2-gravity lineament that is considered to be spatially related to the Olympic Dam deposit and northwest-trending G3-gravity.

The mineralisation at the Nolans Bore deposit is hosted in a series of east-northeast trending, and steeply dipping to the northwest, fluorapatite veins and breccia zones. The granite-gneiss host has been strongly kaolinised due to weathering.

Huston et al. (in press) describe four styles of mineralisation: massive fluorapatite veins that typically contain 4–6% REE oxides and constitute most of the defined resource; very high-grade (7º–10% REE oxide) zones found in cheralite-bearing, apatite-poor kaolinitic zones outside of the veins; apatite allanite epidote zones hosted by calc-silicates; and low-grade stockwork zones in gneiss and kaolinitised rock adjacent to the veins and mylonite zones.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Processing

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Production

Operational metrics

Metrics
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Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Apr 8, 2024
.......................	.......................		Jan 18, 2024
.......................	.......................		Feb 5, 2024
.......................	.......................		Jan 18, 2024

Total Workforce	Year
......	2021