Construction has started at Arafura Rare Earths’ Nolans mine and processing project, 135 kilometres north of Alice Springs.
The Commonwealth says about 600 jobs will be created during construction and more than 350 people will be employed once the project is operating.
The integrated project is planned to include a mine, beneficiation plant, extraction plant, separation plant and supporting infrastructure at the Nolans site.
$1.2 billion in government backing
The Australian Government says it is supporting the project with $1.2 billion delivered through the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, Critical Minerals Facility, National Reconstruction Fund and Australian Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve.
It says government credit agencies from the United States, Canada, South Korea and Germany are also involved alongside private investment.
Trade Minister Don Farrell described the project as an example of supply-chain diversification.
“Building new critical minerals supply chains requires more than a resource in the ground. It requires governments and industry working together to attract investment, share risk and build confidence in future demand.”
A freight task still to be defined
Arafura’s project material says the planned operation has a design capacity of 340,000 tonnes of concentrate a year. It is intended to produce 144,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid, 4,440 tonnes of neodymium-praseodymium oxide and 470 tonnes of mixed middle-heavy rare-earth oxide annually.
Those figures point to a substantial construction and operating freight task. However, the government release and Arafura’s public project page do not identify the planned freight routes, export port, construction delivery schedule, oversize and overmass movements, road upgrades or logistics contracts.
The Commonwealth says the project is expected to supply between 4 and 5 per cent of global rare-earths demand. That remains a government projection tied to the project reaching production.