Overview

Mine Type	Tailings
Stage	Permitting
Commodities	REE
Mining Method	Hydraulic mining
Project Timeline	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	The Phalaborwa Project rare earths resource is contained in two phosphogypsum stacks which are the by-product of historic phosphoric acid production on the site, which ceased in 2014. Project is largely permitted and positioned in an established mining town - available skills and infrastructure. Operation will perform environmental clean-up of acid water on site and sale of benign gypsum by- product will see full rehabilitation of site. Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) in 2022 confirmed robust economics. Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) now underway.

Deposit type

• Tailings

Summary:

The 2-billion-year-old (Archean) Phalaborwa Carbonatite Complex contains apatite-bearing zones, the primary source of South African phosphate production. Phalaborwa carbonatite contains two types of apatite ores: foskorite and pyroxenite.

The manufacture of phosphoric acid from phosphate concentrate produced a phosphogypsum waste which has been deposited on 2 large stacks. The REE in the phosphate ore reports primarily to the phosphate concentrate delivered to the PA plants.

The two stacks are situated to the West of the Phalaborwa mining complex. The residue stacks were deposited on a relatively flat base, consisting of soil and gravel, which was intersected in some of the drill holes.

Stack A, the largest of the 2 stacks, with an approximate basal dimensions of 1,200 m x 700 m, has a higher surface elevation and steeper slopes. An acidic water pond (with a depth of c.4 m at its deepest central part) covers most of the top centre of the stack. Some gypsum has been mined for agriculture purposes has been removed from the NE corner of stack A.

Stack B, with an approximate basal surface of 800 m x 650 m, is lower and has gentler slopes than stack A. The acid pond on top is smaller, but with a depth virtually the same as for stack A. Some gypsum quarrying and mining has taken place in the SE and SW corners of stack B.

In both stacks, the material is made of white, fine-grained, friable phosphogypsum which is indurated/cemented at surface. The gypsum residues have been deposited as a thinly bedded layered sediment pack; however, various other facies have also been observed at surface depth. The gypsum takes a grey colouration at surface (caused by magnetite dust from the nearby dump used to feed to the magnetite plant) but becomes white underneath.

Around and probably in the floor of the acid water ponds, the surface material is made of a hard/cemented gypsum crust 5 to 10 cm thick.

Auger and open-hole drilling carried out by RRE in 2020 and 2022 has showed that the phosphogypsum material is very uniform in colour and grain size from surface to the bottom of the stacks. Moisture content increases with depth ranging from relatively dry to totally sloppy to a point that samples cannot be recovered using conventional drilling methods. The homogeneity of the stacks was confirmed by the relative uniformity of the REE grades, laterally and at depth.

The host apatite ore that originally contained the REE’s has a favourable distribution of individual elements dominated by Neodymium (Nd), Praseodymium (Pr) and Dysprosium (Dy). The REE’s were upgraded by the Foskor concentration process and then again during the phosphoric acid production process where REE reported to the phosphogypsum residue deposited on the stacks.

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
.......................	.......................		Dec 16, 2023
.......................	.......................		Dec 16, 2023

Employees	Contractors	Year
......	......	2022