Mark Tory

With its Browns Range pilot plant in WA’s north set to re-start heavy rare earths production any day now, ASX-listed Northern Minerals has moved quickly to replace its former MD, George Bauk, by promoting long-serving Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary, Mark Tory, to the role of Chief Executive Officer. Tory is a Chartered Accountant with over three decades of mining industry experience.

The Australian Taxation Office has thrown Northern Minerals a $10 million cash lifeline and wiped out a further $9 million in potential debt after settling a protracted research and development grant dispute that has played havoc with the company’s finances. The dispute related to which aspects of Northern Minerals’ Kimberley-based, heavy rare earths pilot plant were technically considered R&D.

Heavy rare earth explorer and developer Northern Minerals is gearing up to hunt for Dazzler lookalikes having set aside $5 million for exploration and development drilling at the company’s Browns Range project in the Kimberley. Drill rigs are expected onsite in October and results will feed into an updated feasibility study. The resulting document could well be the precursor to Northern Minerals emerging as the first supplier of heavy rare earths outside China.

Northern Minerals has banked the majority of the almost $10 million lifeline the Australian Taxation Office promised it after settling a protracted research and development grant dispute that played havoc with its balance sheet. The company has banked $8.64 million from the ATO and a further $1.3m is due in by the end of the week. Northern used the money to repay $2m in debt.

Northern Minerals has launched a major drilling campaign at its Browns Range heavy rare earths project in WA’s East Kimberley region, with 8,000m of the 16,500m RC program planned for the financial year set to be completed before Christmas. It has also recently started building a $5.9 million ore sorter at the front end of the project’s pilot plant that is flagged as a low-cost method of potentially doubling the ore feed grade.

ASX-listed heavy rare earths hopeful, Northern Minerals, has a couple of reasons to hit the festive season with an element of good cheer following a year of significantly improved price action in two key payable elements that occur in the mineral resource at its Browns Range heavy rare earths project in WA.

Aspiring ASX-listed heavy rare earths developer Northern Minerals, has delivered on its pre-Christmas plan with 8,500m of RC drilling at its Browns Range project in WA’s East Kimberley region. The results produced some solid hits including 9m at 0.54 per cent TREO from 53m downhole and 11m at 0.37 per cent TREO from 52m in two separate holes at its greenfield Toad prospect.

Aspiring ASX-listed heavy rare earths developer, Northern Minerals is looking to shave two years off its target date for commercial production and cash flow at its 100 per cent-owned Browns Range project in WA. The company is now aiming for first cashflows from a full-scale beneficiation plant at Browns Range in WA’s top end as early as 2023.

With a fresh $20m in the vault, ASX-listed Northern Minerals has tabled the final results of the 2020 drilling blitz at its 100 per cent-owned Browns Range heavy rare earths project in WA. A total of 72 holes have tested several targets, confirming the existing resources at the Dazzler deposit and indicating the potential for new resource growth close by.

Northern Minerals has passed another significant milestone after producing more than 210,000 kilograms of heavy rare earth carbonate concentrate for sale to end-users. A 40,406kg shipment of concentrate from Northern’s Browns Range rare earths pilot plant is due to be dispatched to its European offtake partner within days. The shipment will contain dysprosium, terbium and yttrium.

Northern Minerals continues to optimise its cutting-edge rare earth processing circuit in WA, with the addition of an ore sorter that management says has the potential to double the feed grade to the milling circuit. The new equipment might also deliver considerable cost savings for future production by increasing throughput and reducing both capital and operational expenditure.

Heavy rare earth price tailwinds are strengthening as Northern Minerals kicks off two months of resource drilling at Browns Range in WA’s north. The drilling, and certainly pricing, will be vital factors in new economic projections for commercial-scale beneficiation at one of the world’s most advanced "heavy" rare earths ventures. Dysprosium has surged 50 per cent since last November and terbium pricing is also heading northwards.

ASX-listed heavy rare earth explorer and producer Northern Minerals has kicked off vital resource drilling at its advanced Browns Range project in WA’s north. The planned 12,000m of reverse circulation drilling is aimed at defining new resources and reserves ahead of next year’s project bankable feasibility study and final investment decision on a commercial-scale operation.

ASX-listed heavy rare earths player Northern Minerals has its sights trained on a new set of prospects at its flagship Browns Range project in WA’s East Kimberley region. The trio of targets were highlighted by preliminary field portable X-ray fluorescence hits the company says point to broad geochemical anomalies that it intends following up with more drilling shortly.

ASX-listed Northern Minerals has progressed its potentially game changing ore sorting initiative with the successful testing of the sorter system at its Browns Range rare earths pilot operation in the north of WA. The company is now producing sorted material and converting this to a 30 percent total rare earth oxide concentrate. Processing of the ore sorted material has resulted in remarkably better recoveries.

ASX-listed ChemX Materials has signed a memorandum of understanding to work towards an offtake deal from its high-purity manganese project in South Australia with US battery technology company C4V. The non-binding agreement is based around the potential supply of high-purity product from ChemX’s Jamieson Tank project on the Eyre Peninsula and is a significant step in the company’s plans to become a sustainable and reliable global supplier of battery materials.

ChemX Materials has started building a maiden resource foundation with impressive first assay results from drilling at its South Australian deposit, including a 6m hit grading 18.5 per cent manganese from 9m. The company says it has now received data from 39 holes of its 94-hole campaign, which targeted the high-grade manganese that can be efficiently converted to high-purity manganese for the electric battery market.

ChemX Materials has unveiled more high-grade, near-surface manganese in its second batch of assay results from drilling in South Australia, including a 6m hit grading 18 per cent manganese from just 15m. It says it now has data from 69 holes of its 94-hole Jamieson Tank campaign, which has targeted mineralisation that can be efficiently converted to high-purity manganese – a key component in electric batteries.

The third and final batch of assay results from ChemX Materials’ 2023 drilling campaign at its Jamieson Tank manganese deposit on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula have landed, including a headline 16m hit going 17.9 per cent manganese from 17m. The results will help bolster a maiden mineral resource estimate for the Perth-based high-purity critical materials company.