An independent article about ARU published on Switzer last week...

An independent article about ARU published on Switzer last week by James Dunn

Financial journalist and commentator on 3AW and Sky Business​

Arafura Resources (ARU, 11 cents)​

Market capitalisation: $63 million
Arafura Resources owns what it describes as one of the world’s largest neodymium and praseodymium deposits, at its wholly owned Nolans project, 135 kilometres north of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
Nolans received environmental approval from the Northern Territory government in January and is close to a final investment decision, which is expected by the end of the year, following similar approval from Canberra. Nolans will be a $700 million project that will mine the neodymium and praseodymium and transport concentrate to an offshore refinery for final chemical processing into high-value rare earth products,
The project is supported by a mineral resource of 56 million tonnes at a grade of 2.6% total rare earth oxide (TREO), containing approximately 382,000 tonnes of NdPr oxide. The project is forecast to produce 14,000 tonnes of TREO a year, including 3,600 tonnes of NdPr oxide a year, over a mine life of more than 30 years. The flagship product will be a high-purity NdPr oxide product for advanced magnet and magnet alloy customers. Arafura says Nolans is capable of meeting up to 10% of global demand for NdPr, with forecast operating costs are in the lowest quartile of world producers.
The project will also produce a high-purity mixed middle-heavy rare earths (SEG/HRE) carbonate product, a high-purity lanthanum oxide product, a cerium hydroxide product, and will also produce a marketable phosphate by-product, that will be suitable for the granular fertiliser market, or upgraded to a higher-value phosphate product.​