Northern Minerals Ltd (ASX:NTU) has entered into a subscription agreement with Liu Xiaohua for the placement of 60 million ordinary shares at 5 cents each to raise $3 million.
Funds raised from the placement will be utilised for ongoing working capital purposes.
Northern Minerals constructed the Browns Range Heavy Rare Earth (HRE) Pilot Plant in northern Western Australia last year and commenced production of heavy rare earth carbonate.
READ: Northern Minerals’ produces first rare earth carbonate from Browns Range pilot plant
The three-year pilot plant project will continue to assist the company evaluate the economic and technical feasibility of mining at Browns Range, and will provide the opportunity to gain production experience and surety of supply for its offtake partner.
Browns Range pilot plant flowsheet
Through the development of its flagship project, the Browns Range Project, Northern Minerals aims to build the Western Australian operation into the first significant world producer of dysprosium outside of China.
The project is 100% owned by the company and has several deposits and prospects containing high value dysprosium and other HREs, hosted in xenotime mineralisation.
Dysprosium – critical to the EV evolution
Dysprosium is an essential ingredient in the production of DyNdFeB (dysprosium neodymium ironboron) magnets used in clean energy and high technology solutions.
With each electric vehicle using just over 100 grams of dysprosium, demand is expected to increase to over 3,500 tonnes per annum by 2030.
With over 98% of dysprosium production from China, there is strong interest in the US and globally for new, sustainable sources of supply.