Soon-to-be rare earths producer Lindian Resources has inked a binding strategic partnership with French rare earths specialist Carester, locking in an offtake agreement for up to 20 years and kicking off plans for an add-on downstream oxide separation facility in Kazakhstan.
The deal provides a long-term home for Lindian’s heavy rare earths production and represents a major step in the company’s vertically integrated “mine-to-oxide” strategy.
The offtake agreement has an initial 10-year term with options for two five-year extensions. Under the deal, Carester will purchase 70 per cent of the mixed heavy rare earth carbonate (MHREC) produced at Lindian’s SARECO processing facility in Kazakhstan.
The heavy rare earths product will be supplied as feedstock to the Caremag refinery in Lacq, France – a joint venture development between Carester, the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security and Iwatani Corporation.
The French facility has already secured substantial government funding from both France and Japan, effectively plugging Lindian into a well-funded, major Western-aligned critical minerals supply chain.
The agreement with Carester also triggers the next phase of Lindian’s downstream ambitions. The two companies will now push forward with a definitive feasibility study (DFS) for an add-on 8000-tonne-per-annum solvent extraction and oxide separation facility.
The upgraded plant will be designed to produce magnet-quality neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide at greater than 99.5 per cent purity, which is then separated from an additional SEGH carbonate product stream, also destined for France. The study is slated to wrap up by year's end.
Notably, the company's solvent extraction (SX) circuit is expected to be organically funded by Lindian's operating assets, with a 2015 Arafura Resources study for its Nolans Site in Australia citing a $95 million price tag for downstream SX/oxide addition.
The overall replacement value for the recently purchased and bargain-basement $20 million SARECO plant already sits at $500 million, so making a modestly priced upgrade to install an SX plant in exchange for the chance to unlock two high-value product streams is unlikely to break the bank.
Lindian Resources executive chairman Robert Martin said: "Carester brings both world-class separation expertise and a long-term route to market for our heavy rare earth production. Its Caremag facility is backed by $350 million of French and Japanese funding and is targeting approximately 15 per cent of global dysprosium and terbium oxide production, demonstrating the strategic importance of the supply chain that we are building."
The company's downstream push is underpinned by Lindian’s cornerstone asset, the giant Kangankunde rare earths operation in Malawi. The project hosts a massive mineral resource of 261 million tonnes grading an impressive 2.19 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO).
Stage one construction at Kangankunde is already well advanced and, importantly, fully funded thanks to a recent $100 million institutional placement and supplementary local financing in Malawi.
First production of premium monazite concentrate from the project is scheduled for later this year. The finished product will then be shipped to both Iluka's Eneabba refinery and Lindian's SARECO processing facility in Kazakhstan, where it will be processed ready for final separation at the proposed new oxide facility.
The plan to build out the new separation plant has also received a significant vote of confidence from the Kazakhstan Government, with the Ministry of Industry and Construction recognising the project as strategically important to the nation’s downstream ambitions.
Lindian says the new facility will likely be funded entirely from cash flows generated by its Kangankunde and SARECO operations, potentially sidestepping the need for any outside funding.
The move into separated oxides should allow the company to capture significantly more value from its resource. The NdPr oxide and the separated SEGH carbonate will be sold to Carester and command exceptionally high prices compared to concentrate products, both of which are vital for high-performance permanent magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines.
With its world-class Kangankunde project backed by a long-term offtake arrangement with Iluka Resources and now a pathway to high-value separated oxides secured through its partnership with Carester, Lindian is methodically assembling all the pieces of a significant rare earths production business.
For a junior miner to be building a mine in Africa, a hydromet plant in Central Asia and now an oxide separation facility — all while fully funded for the first stage — is no small feat. The Carester deal appears to be the final piece of a complex puzzle that could see Lindian leap from aspiring developer to a meaningful force in the global rare earths supply chain.
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By Andrew Todd
