NioCorp Developments Ltd. (TSX:NB, OTCQX:NIOBF) has announced that its demonstration-scale processing plant in Quebec, Canada is now processing ore samples from the company's Elk Creek critical minerals project.
The demonstration plant is intended to show that the company can extract and separate rare earth elements from ore that NioCorp expects to mine from the project site, subject to receipt of necessary project financing, and that its simplified process for potentially producing niobium, scandium, and titanium is technically and economically feasible.
NioCorp is developing a critical minerals project in southeast Nebraska that will produce niobium, scandium, and titanium. The company said it is also evaluating the potential to produce several rare earth byproducts from the project.
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According to NioCorp, the demonstration plant will process Elk Creek ore samples in three phases. Testing should be completed over the next several weeks. NioCorp said it expects to publicly disclose testing results after each operational phase concludes.
Phase one is designed to demonstrate a new approach to the initial processing of the ore that NioCorp expects to mine from the project site, subject to receipt of necessary project funding, including calcination, initial leaching, and rare earth extraction.
Phase two is designed to demonstrate an improved process for the second stage of leaching along with niobium and titanium separation.
Phase three is designed to demonstrate the technical viability of separating high-purity versions of several target magnetic rare earth products from Elk Creek ore samples, as well as confirming previously achieved high recovery rates for high-purity scandium trioxide.
The potential magnetic rare earth products include neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, dysprosium oxide, and terbium oxide. NioCorp will use conventional solvent extraction (SX) technology to test a rare earth separation approach developed by NioCorp and L3. NioCorp and L3 have years of collective experience in SX technology.
NioCorp chief operating officer Scott Honan said the company is pleased to see the demonstration plant begin operations, which the company intends to closely monitor every step of the process.
"Many of these processes have already been successfully tested at the bench scale. Given our team's years of experience in hydrometallurgy, including rare earth separations, I expect that we will demonstrate positive results. I also look forward to potentially demonstrating how our simplified process flow sheet can more efficiently and cost-effectively produce niobium, scandium, and titanium," Honan said in a statement.
Honan added that once operations have concluded and data analyzed, work can then turn to the design and engineering of the new process flow sheet, which in turn could be incorporated into an updated Elk Creek project feasibility study that incorporates an economic analysis of separated rare earth oxide products and the simplified process flow sheet.
As no economic analysis has been completed on the rare earth mineral resource comprising the project, further studies are required before determining whether extraction of rare earth elements can be reasonably justified and economically viable after taking into account all relevant factors, NioCorp added.
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