CLEAN MINING
W
hen senior management of Vital Metals, an Australian company, went looking for rare earth deposits to develop, one of the deciding factors in their shortlisting exercise was each property’s suitability for particle ore sorting. The Nechalacho project in the Northwest Territories met all of the company’s requirements. Aside from being a quality resource in a politically stable jurisdiction, test work confirmed that particle ore sorting using X-ray transmission sensors would be able to separate the quartz host rock from the bastnaesite ore. Particle ore separation was important because of the technology’s ability to reduce Nechalacho’s footprint, says David Connelly, vice-president, govern-
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ment and corporate affairs of Cheetah Resources, Vital Metals subsidiary and operator of Nechalacho. “In today’s world – and particularly when you are extracting resources for the green economy – you have to behave in an environmentally sound manner and sensor-based sorting has a much lower impact on the environment than other methods of beneficiation,” he said in an interview in August. China’s control of the rare earth market and its history of dropping prices to squeeze out high and middle cost producers also drove the decision to go with an ore sorting solution. “The previous developer of the property – Avalon Advanced Materials – based
its bankable feasibility study on a traditional concentrator costing hundreds of millions of dollars,” said onnelly. heetah, which has only acquired Nechalacho’s near surface resource, opted for a simple open pit, seasonal mining operation with a footprint less than 5% of the size of a traditional concentrator and costing less than $12 million. Cheetah began production at the smallscale operation this summer. Crushed material at Nechalacho is introduced to the ore sorter via a conveyor belt and identified as either ore or waste by X-ray transmission sensors. The sorter maps the particles containing ore and engages selected air injectors to propel them into a separate ore stream.
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