Successful Hydromet Piloting Completed - All Processing Flowsheets Tested
Sydney, May 22, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Hastings Technology Metals Limited (
ASX:HAS)("Hastings" or "the Company") has successfully completed the crucial continuous Hydromet pilot plant operations for the Yangibana Rare Earths Project.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Pilot plant testing of the hydrometallurgy (Hydromet) circuits successfully validated the simple and effective flowsheet of the Yangibana Hydromet processes
- Three phase piloting undertaken:
o Acid bake
o Water leach and impurity removal
o Carbonate product precipitation
- All three phases achieved or exceeded laboratory results
- Key engineering data was collected from the pilot plant operation for the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS)
- Effective operational processes parameters identified
- Over 50 kg of high purity Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate (MREC) produced for marketing purposes
The Yangibana Rare Earths Project is located in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The Company plans to construct a processing plant to produce a MREC product, through the process of mining, beneficiation and hydrometallurgy. The hydromet pilot plant is the final stage in pilot testing of the Yangibana process flowsheet.
Hydromet Pilot Plant Summary
The three phase simple and effective flowsheet was developed with the best available technology in the laboratory testwork program. The piloting produced 3.5 kg concentrate per hour. The pilot processing circuit, operated continuously on a 24 hour basis over a total of 12 days at Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Lucas Heights, NSW.
Concentrate was produced from the February 2017 beneficiation pilot plant operation. The three stages of the hydromet piloting were;
1. Baking of the concentrate/acid mixture.
2. Leaching the calcine product in water to produce a rare earth containing liquor. Impurities in the liquor were then removed.
3. Precipitation of the rare earths as a carbonate product. Rare earth recoveries were above 94% for water leach, 95% for impurity removal and 98.5% for carbonate precipitation.
The MREC produced (see Table 1 in the link below), shows that the manganese, iron, thorium and uranium were removed or controlled within acceptable product range.
The hydromet circuit uses commercially and readily available equipment and reagents.
Specialist equipment vendors attended the pilot operation to test the thickening and filtration performance of the intermediate solid-liquid separation stages and assess applicability to the engineering design. Work is continuing with other process equipment vendors for sizing of specific equipment, such as attrition tank for leach circuit etc. Data collected from this work will be incorporated into the detailed engineering study.
The following samples were also collected from the continuous 24 hour piloting:
- Full circuit metallurgical survey samples for validation of scale-up from laboratory results;
- Bulk samples for engineering design testwork, e.g. calcine attritioning, thickener sizing, product filter sizing, tailing storage facility design and materials handling characterisation;
- MREC product which will be used for marketing.
The results will feed into the current engineering study and detailed design phase of the project.
Ongoing Performance Improvement Testwork
Further performance improvement testwork for the hydromet circuit will be carried out from the results of the pilot testing.
TERMINOLOGY USED IN THIS REPORT
Total Rare Earths Oxides, TREO, is the sum of the oxides of the light rare earth elements lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), and samarium (Sm) and the heavy rare earth elements europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), lutetium (Lu), and yttrium (Y).
To view tables and figures, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/PMS10FC7
About Hastings Technology Metals Ltd
Hastings Technology Metals Ltd (ASX:HAS) (FRA:5AM) is advancing its Yangibana Rare Earths Project in the Upper Gascoyne Region of Western Australia towards production. The proposed beneficiation and hydro metallurgy processing plant will treat rare earths deposits, predominantly monazite, hosting high neodymium and praseodymium contents to produce a mixed rare earths carbonate that will be further refined into individual rare earth oxides at processing plants overseas.
Neodymium and praseodymium are vital components in the manufacture of permanent magnets which is used in a wide and expanding range of advanced and high-tech products including electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, medical applications and others. Hastings aims to become the next significant producer of neodymium and praseodymium outside of China.
Hastings holds 100% interest in the most significant deposits within the overall project, and 70% interest in additional deposits that will be developed at a later date, all held under Mining Leases. Numerous prospects have been identified warranting detailed exploration to further extend the life of the project.
Brockman Project
The Brockman deposit, near Halls Creek in Western Australia, contains JORC Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources, estimated using the guidelines of JORC Code (2012 Edition).
The Company is also progressing a Mining Lease application over the Brockman Rare Earths and Rare Metals Project.
Hastings aims to capitalise on the strong demand for critical rare earths created by the expanding demand for new technology products.
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