Arafura Resources Limited (ASX:ARU) (OTCMKTS:ARAFF) (FRA:REB) has been granted the mineral leases (ML) by the Northern Territory Government for areas supporting its Nolans Neodymium-Praseodymium (NdPr) Project.
The MLs, which will host the Nolans borefield, were granted to Arafura’s wholly-owned subsidiary Arafura Rare Earths Pty Ltd (ARE) for an initial term of 25 years by the Northern Territory Minister for Mining and Industry.
They provide exclusive access for the construction, use and maintenance of the borefield to support the operations of the mine and processing plant.
The MLs also enable the construction of a water diversion channel around the mining area as required under the project's environmental approval conditions.
Nolans borefield
The borefield was identified by Arafura following a successful exploration and investigation program in a previously unexplored basin area around 20 kilometres southwest of the Nolans site.
This groundwater aquifer system covers a large area, is high yielding and is of a quality that is suitable to supply the Nolans Project with water over its planned life.
Since identifying this resource in 2013, Arafura has maintained a monitoring program for ongoing collection of data since identifying the resource in 2013 – which is key to the company’s environmental and resource sustainability management for the project.
The new ML 32416 (diversion channel) and ML’s 32411-32415 (borefield) along with ML 26659 (Nolans Bore mineral resource, open pit mine, waste rock dumps).
Stratigraphic diamond drilling
Subject to funding, the company anticipates commencement of the next phase of borefield development shortly which will include stratigraphic diamond drilling to finalise understanding of the exact ground conditions and enable final production bore design.
This drilling will be completed in parallel with the front-end engineering design (FEED) for the Project, readying the project for the commencement of construction.