VTM nails 59-fold increase in REE concentrate at North Stanmore. Pic: Getty Images
- Victory Metals achieves 59-fold increase in rare earths concentrate at North Stanmore, grading 7.1% TREO with 40% heavy rare earths ratio
- Result achieved through simple and low-cost flotation circuit
- Newly commissioned pilot plant set to be formally opened by Federal Minister for Resources, Madeleine King
Special Report: Victory Metals has achieved a processing milestone at its North Stanmore rare earths project in WA, with a newly commissioned pilot plant delivering a 59-fold upgrade to its rare earths concentrate.
The plant produced a concentrate grading 7.1% TREO from a feed grade of 1195ppm, including a heavy rare earths component totalling 40%.
Victory Metals (ASX:VTM) says the results show that the project’s heavy rare earths can be concentrated in a simple, continuous low-cost flotation circuit.
It believes the pilot plant marks a significant step towards establishing a secure source of heavy rare earths in Australia, while supporting national security and the renewable energy transition.
The facility has formally been unveiled today in Perth by Federal Minister for Resources, Madeleine King.
Heavy rare earths play a key role in permanent magnets that power EVs, wind turbines, advanced manufacturing and modern defence systems.
The upgraded North Stanmore concentrate contains several high-demand heavy rare earths, including dysprosium oxide grading 2777ppm, terbium oxide at 479ppm and yttrium oxide at 1.77wt%.
The TREO upgrade was achieved through a simple and cost-efficient flotation process, utilising 65 one-metre samples from 25 drill holes across various depths.
It was accomplished through a continuously fed circuit operating at about 12-times the scale of any previous flotation test work on North Stanmore ore.
The latest result builds on Victory’s earlier sighter flotation work, which served up a 48-fold upgrade for a concentrate grading 5.9% TREO.
“This is the result we have been driving towards,” noted Victory Metals CEO Brendan Clark.
“We have now proven, at continuous pilot scale and on our own plant commissioned right here in Perth at our own premises, that North Stanmore’s heavy rare earths can be concentrated in a simple, conventional flotation circuit while preserving the premium dysprosium, terbium and yttrium basket that makes this deposit strategically important.”
“I had the pleasure of working firsthand with our technical team to observe the process and understand its true simplicity.”
“A ~59-fold upgrade from only one cleaner stage in a continuously operating circuit is the foundation of a smaller, cheaper and faster plant and I am impressed that we are leading the way in simplifying rare earth processing.”
Strategic advantages
Victory believes operating the process through its own Perth-based plant could provide a strategic advantage.
It says that using its own equipment instead of third-party commercial facilities gives the company direct ownership of its intellectual property and an ability to optimise and scale its flowsheet rapidly.
The outcome also confirms that North Stanmore’s heavy rare earths are hosted in discrete, well-liberated secondary phosphate minerals, rhabdophane and churchite, which respond to conventional froth flotation.
The company says the flotation route avoids high-temperature processing and acid cracking steps commonly associated with conventional rare earths projects.
“This floatable mineralogy and ambient temperature recovery pathway gives North Stanmore a significant processing advantage,” Clark said.
“With few global peers that can produce the heavy rare earths that the Western world actually needs, we are very excited about producing product at continuous plant scale to provide quality larger samples to our potential future offtake partners.”
Looking forward
North Stanmore is regarded as one of Australia’s largest and most advanced clay-hosted heavy rare earths deposits.
Victory is advancing the project towards a PFS and will now look to produce larger volumes of its concentrate for offtake partners.
It says that Western manufacturers are increasingly looking for non-Chinese supply of heavy rare earths, which are considered more scarce and strategically important than light rare earths.
Against that backdrop, management believes North Stanmore is well positioned to attract strong interest from potential offtake partners.
This article was developed in collaboration with Victory Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
