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Canada

Strange Lake Project

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StagePermitting
Commodities
  • REE
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotThe Strange Lake Project is located in the Nunavik region of Québec and is known as one of the world’s largest proven rare earth deposits that contains both light and heavy types of rare earths.

Funded pre-feasibility, feasibility studies and major initiatives are underway.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Torngat Metals Ltd. 100 % Direct

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Magmatic

Summary:

The Strange Lake deposit is part of a post-tectonic, peralkaline granite complex which has intruded along the contact between older gneisses and monzonites of the Churchill Province of the Canadian Shield.

The granite complex is sub-circular and comprises a series of compositionally and petrographically distinct granites, which can be differentiated based on petrography (one feldspar versus two) and relative concentrations of the REE and HFSE, which generally exhibit unique ranges that are characteristic of each granite. These granites are in sharp contact with the surrounding country rocks and the apparent contact between the granite complex and country rocks is outward dipping at 20º to 30º. A structural zone comprising stockwork fluorite-hematite veining and hematite-fluorite breccia occurs discontinuously along the contact between the SLAC and country rocks. The least fractionated granite is a fine-grained, massive hypersolvus granite and it exhibits the lowest concentrations of REE and HFSE in the complex; it occurs in the geometric centre of the complex. This granite is surrounded by a medium-grained, massive subsolvus granite that exhibits a distinct enrichment in REE and HFSE. Within the subsolvus granite, pegmatite and aplite sheets and dikes occur, and these are the main host to REE and HFSE mineralization and represent the latest, most fractionated phase of magmatism in the complex.

Mineralization of interest at Strange Lake occurs within peralkaline granite-hosted pegmatites and aplites and, to a lesser degree, within the host granites, particularly in intrapegmatitic granites.

Pegmatites and minor aplite (fine-grained pegmatite) comprise gangue with feldspar (potassic>sodic), glassy to white quartz, arfvedsonite, gittinsite, fluorite and various minor accessory minerals including titanite, allanite, pyrochlore and gadolinite, which are readily identifiable in core. Gittinsite and amphibole appear to have generally formed contemporaneously and both exhibit euhedral to subhedral morphologies. Feldspar exhibits a variable paragenetic relationship relative to arfvedsonite and gittinsite, but is commonly somewhat later in complex pegmatites and earlier in simpler, late pegmatites. Quartz is late and interstitial and fluorite, which is commonly dark purple to black, is commonly later than quartz. Arfvedsonite is typically strongly replaced by either coarse bottle green aegirine or red-brown earthy hematite and may be strongly leached to form vugs that are sometimes quartz-hematite lined. Gittinsite is typically altered to a mottled orange-pink to beige colour and spotted with very fine grey-green LREE-bearing allanite, giving a spotted salt and pepper texture. Feldspar is often altered as concentric oscillating zones or mixed hematite and fluorite, giving a mottled, often fractured appearance.

Subsolvus granite, which typically contains very fine-grained dark grey to black rounded inclusions of hypersolvus granite is the most voluminous unit in the Strange Lake Alkali Complex (SLAC) and is the principal host to REE-bearing pegmatites. Minor white-grey mm-scale reaction rims locally wrap around these inclusions. It is typically fine- to mediumgrained (i.e., less than 1 cm) comprising variably altered feldspar (sodic>potassic), intergranular white-grey quartz, subhedral variably altered arfvedsonite, interstitial/poikilitic gittinsite and euhedral ghosts of narsarsukite; wispy pale purple or interstitial dark purple fluorite is ubiquitous. Extensive albitization of the granite creates an overall granular to sugary appearance in the groundmass while arfvedsonite, which commonly exhibits a bimodal grain size of fine mm-scale anhedral grains and relatively coarser-grained euhedral crystals, is variably altered or may be fresh. Similar to arfvedsonite in pegmatites, arfvedsonite is commonly altered either by aegirine, particularly proximal to pegmatites, or earthy brown-red hematite; large portions of the B Zone exhibit fresh arfvedsonite in a variably altered matrix. Narsarsukite, which is grey when unaltered, is often tan-beige, indicating replacement by titanite. Gittinsite is variable in colour, but is commonly partially replaced by dark grey-green LREE-bearing allanite; replacement may take the form of salt and pepper spotting as in pegmatites or as amorphous patches. Alteration typically developed in the host subsolvus granite is not typically developed in the inclusions.

Reserves

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

CommodityUnitsAvg. AnnualLOM
Total Rare Earth Oxides kt 61019,478
All production numbers are expressed as concentrate.

Production Costs

CommodityUnitsEstimated
Total cash costs Total Rare Earth Oxides CAD 628.42 / t *  CAD
* According to 2014 study / presentation. Flotation Concentrate.

Operating Costs

Currency2024
OP mining costs ($/t mined) CAD  ....  Subscribe
OP mining costs ($/t milled) CAD  ....  Subscribe
Processing costs ($/t milled) CAD  ....  Subscribe
G&A ($/t milled) CAD  ....  Subscribe
Total operating costs ($/t milled) CAD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2014 study.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
Sustaining CapEx $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
Total CapEx $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
OP OpEx $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
Processing OpEx $M CAD 6,595
G&A costs $M CAD 315
Total OpEx $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
Gross revenue (LOM) $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
EBITDA (LOM) $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 10% $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 8% $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 10% $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 8% $M CAD  ......  Subscribe
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After-tax payback period, years  ......  Subscribe

Required Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNamePhoneEmailProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 9, 2014
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