Overview

Mine Type	Open Pit
Stage	Permitting
Commodities	Zircon Titanium REE Ilmenite Monazite Xenotime Rutile
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader Dry mining
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	The Donald Project comprises two adjoining deposits, the Donald deposit (which constitutes the area covered by MIN5532 and RL2002) and the Jackson deposit (RL2003). The Jackson deposit represents further potential mining and processing opportunities. The Donald Project will produce two products, a heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) and a rare earth element concentrate (REEC). The mining licence MIN5532 is the site of Phase 1 of the Donald Project. It is envisioned that Phase 2 of the project will be developed on retention licence RL2002 with proposed operations to the north and south of MIN5532. The Donald Project will form a part of the Joint Venture, in which Energy Fuels has the right to contract up to 100% of REEC production, and Astron has the right to contract up to 100% of the HM concentrate production. REEC pricing based on Cost Insurance and Freight (CIF) USA provided as of February 2023. HMC pricing based on CIF China provided as of Q1 2023.

Deposit type

• Mineral sands

Summary:

The Donald deposit is within the Murray Basin, which comprises flat-lying Cenozoic sediments that unconformably overlie Proterozoic and Palaeozoic basement rocks. The mineralisation is contained within the Tertiary aged Loxton Sand, a sequence of marine sands representing a range of environments including deep-water (offshore), near shore, tidal, beach and back dunal sediments.

The Wimmera Industrial Minerals (WIM)-style mineralisation, fine grained heavy mineral deposit within the Parilla Sand.

The Project contains significant rare earth minerals in the form of monazite and xenotime.

The deposit can be described as a Tertiary succession of freshwater, marine, coastal and continental sediments deposited heavy minerals in the area. The deposit consist of a solitary or composite broad, lobate sheet-like body of considerable aerial extent, highly sorted and associated with fine micaceous sand. These deposits are thought to represent accumulations formed below the active wave base in a near shore environment, possibly representing the submarine equivalent of the strand style deposits.

The mineralisation at Donald is contained within the marine sequence of the Loxton Sand. The marine sequence of the Loxton Sand unit can be subdivided into three sub-units:
• LP1 – fine to very coarse friable quartz sands and minor silty, clay and gravel beds representing dunal, foreshore and surf zone sediments;
• LP2 – near-shore, very fine silty micaceous quartz sands, minor clays and gravels, representing sediments deposited below the wave base that show friable laminated and truncated HM mineralised beds. LP2 is the principal fine-grained heavy mineral target throughout the Murray Basin and contains the majority of the mineralisation in the Donald deposit;
• LP3 – represents deep water sedimentation containing higher silt and clay material than LP2.

Within the Donald deposit area, the Loxton Sand is underlain by the Geera Clay. The Geera Clay typically consists of black, grey, green or yellow brown plastic clays, with minor silts and is interpreted to have formed in a shallow water, marginal marine, lagoonal or tidal flat environment.

The Loxton Sand is overlain by the fluvio-deltaic Shepparton Formation which consists of clay and silt.

Dimensions
The mineralization ranges in depth from 1 m to 41 m.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Processing

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Production

Operational metrics

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Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Jul 26, 2024
.......................	.......................		Jul 9, 2024