Lynas Corporation (ASX: LYC, OTC: LYSDY) has forecast the first feed of ore into the Mount Weld Concentration Plant will be in the last week of March, a slight delay from the original timeline due to heavy rain in the area.
Most importantly, the mine site and the concentration plant have not been damaged by the flooding.
Mount Weld, owned by Lynas, is the richest known deposit of rare earths currently known in the world, located near Laverton in Western Australia.
The company has a strategy at the project to create a reliable, fully integrated source of rare earths supply from the mine through to customers.
The ore mined at Mount Weld will be concentrated in a concentration plant just 1.5 kilometres from the mine, before being shipped to the east coast of Malaysia to the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant.
The concentrate will then be separated into rare earths products.
Lynas said construction of the advanced mineral plant remains within budget, with the first feed of concentrate on target for the September quarter of 2011.