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15<br />
Commissioned: The ore sorter circuit in place and operating at the Pilot Plant.<br />
Work on upgrading the main access road (Duncan<br />
Road and Gordon Downs Road) to Ringer Soak<br />
and Browns Range continued during the year,<br />
with significant progress made in the second<br />
year of a three-year program. The road upgrade<br />
program resulted from the $51 million allocation<br />
of funding by the Federal and State governments<br />
and will potentially allow for the operation to run<br />
continuously once completed.<br />
Ore sorting<br />
After being on hold for six months, the ore sorter<br />
project recommenced in July <strong>2020</strong> with Board<br />
approval to progress mechanical and structural related<br />
work. Northern Minerals gained the regulatory<br />
approvals from relevant State authorities for the<br />
installation of ore sorting equipment at Browns Range<br />
and commenced construction in the first quarter.<br />
The Company successfully completed the<br />
installation and commissioning of the ore sorting<br />
system at the Brown’s Range Pilot Plant in June<br />
2021. With the ore sorter circuit in place, the<br />
Company will now carry out further testwork<br />
on large bulk ore samples in the coming year to<br />
validate the technical and economic benefits of ore<br />
sorting for Browns Range.<br />
Acquiring this larger scale data set will allow for<br />
the more reliable application of forecast economic<br />
improvements in processing the broader Mineral<br />
Resource endowment. This work will also help<br />
evaluate material flow-through benefits of ore<br />
sorting on overall processing efficiencies.<br />
The ore sorting equipment concentrates ore prior<br />
to the beneficiation circuit by selecting ore and<br />
rejecting waste based primarily on x-ray transmission<br />
detection. Previous laboratory bench-scale tests of<br />
the technology on Browns Range ore identified the<br />
potential to significantly increase the feed grade to<br />
the mill. Subject to further large bulk ore testwork,<br />
the investment in an ore sorting system at Browns<br />
Range is expected to materially improve feed grade<br />
and reduce overall processing costs.<br />
Results from this bulk ore testwork will be a key<br />
input into the feasibility study currently under way<br />
to produce a heavy rare earth xenotime concentrate<br />
from a commercial-scale beneficiation plant at<br />
Browns Range.<br />
Feasibility Study - full scale<br />
beneficiation plant<br />
With the identification of potential offtake partners<br />
for a heavy rare earth xenotime concentrate<br />
combined with the promising results from the Pilot<br />
Plant R&D testwork and the bench scale ore sorting<br />
testwork results, a feasibility study is under way to<br />
assess the commercial viability of developing the<br />
full scale beneficiation plant at Browns Range to<br />
produce a heavy rare earth xenotime concentrate.<br />
A full scale beneficiation plant at<br />
Browns Range represents an<br />
accelerated pathway to commercialscale<br />
production and is a lower risk<br />
approach compared to pursuing a<br />
full-scale version of the Browns Range<br />
Pilot Plant, which includes both the<br />
beneficiation and hydrometallurgical<br />
processing circuits.<br />
NORTHERN MINERALS _ ANNUAL REPORT 2021
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