Posted on 07/08/2021 9:15:56 PM PDT by Right Wing Vegan
On June 28, First Nations mining contractor Nahanni Construction Ltd. dug a scoop of ore from the North T open pit at Vital Metals Ltd.'s Nechalacho project in Northwest Territories that marked a momentous milestone – Canada is now a rare earths-producing nation.
This first REE ore mined at Nechalacho comes just two years after Australia-based Vital came up with a unique plan to take advantage of relatively small but high-grade mineralization coming to the surface at the project to rapidly produce the rare earths widely used in today's high-tech devices.
North T has 101,000 metric tons of resources averaging 9.01% total rare earth oxides, compared to other global deposits that tend to average around 1% TREO or less.
The high-grade North T ore being mined by Nahanni Construction will be further upgraded with an ore sorter delivered to Nechalacho this spring.
Working with Nahanni Construction Ltd., a Northwest Territories-based company 51% owned by Det'on Cho Corporation, which is in turn owned by the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.
"The Yellowknives Dene First Nation is pleased to be the first Indigenous group in Canada to be responsible for mineral extraction on their traditional territory," Yellowknives Dene First Nations Chief Ernest Betsina said earlier this year. "When indigenous people conduct the mining operations, they are better able to control the process, resulting in better safeguarding of the environment."
Without the need for a complex ore processing facility, the coming Nechalacho Mine is something akin to a gravel quarry – simply mine and crush near surface rock and sort out the best material to be transported.
Tests of the x-ray transmission (XRT) ore sorting technology being used upgraded Nechalacho material with an average grade of 10.5% rare earth oxides to a rough concentrate averaging 36% REO, while retaining about 70% of the available rare earths.
In June, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor) announced that it had extended a 0%, C$1.26 million loan to Cheetah to help fund the establishment of ore-sorting technology at Nechalacho.
With ore now being mined from the North T pit, Cheetah Resource Corp., Vital's Canada-based subsidiary, can begin upgrading the ore into even higher-grade concentrates that will be shipped to Vital's rare earth carbonate production plant adjacent to Saskatchewan Research Council's REE processing facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
"We will continue to ramp up crushing and ore sorting with full production rates expected to be achieved in July," said Vital Metals Managing Director Geoff Atkins. "Beneficiated material will be stockpiled for transport to our extraction plant in Saskatoon."
Mixed rare earth carbonate products produced in Saskatchewan will be further upgraded into rare earth oxides that go into electric vehicles, wind turbines, computer hard drives, and a plethora of other high-tech devices.
REEtec, a Norway-based company that has developed an efficient and environmentally sound REE separation technology, has entered into a contract to produce 1,000 metric tons of separated rare earth oxides annually, not counting the cerium, over the first five years.
With plans in the works to grow the scale of its operations at Nechalacho, Vital's offtake and profit-sharing agreement with REEtec provides the companies with an option to increase this offtake volume up to 5,000 metric tons of rare earth oxides per year, minus the cerium.
Overall, the Upper Zone at Nechalacho hosts 94.7 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 1.46% (1.3 million metric tons) total rare earth oxides. Drilling carried out early this year has begun to define other high-grade zones that will provide ore for a planned stage-2 expansion at Nechalacho.
In the meantime, ore being mined and processed from North T marks exciting achievements for Vital, Canada, and its First Nations.
“rare earths” are not really rare
“When indigenous people conduct the mining operations, they are better able to control the process, resulting in better safeguarding of the environment.”
Casual racism is ok if it fits in with liberal theology.
You can’t blame Canadian natives, considering their experience with the Quebec run federal government.
What about Cobalt?
The Chinese have got dozens of little African children manually digging in the cave dirt to find it.
Get ready, ‘cause here I come.
What is rare is the neighbors who want to tolerate the strip mining and refining operations with the attendant water pollution and poisoning of arable land.
A nice empty desert mountain area is a good place from which to obtain these metals.
Better yet may be some new desalination techniques that can extract these elements from seawater.
However it is done, it still is going to leave a mess somewhere that needs to be disposed.
These indigenous people are a bunch of ore-os!
Bttt
I know I’m losing you....
These Dene are weird Indians ...hard to figure origins and evolution
Their shared language is spoken as far south as chiracauha Apache and Lipan in Texas....and yet thier northern brethren are so recent ...I’m guessing
They have facial hair ...
And like so many Indian tribes they call themselves.....guess what
“Original or Real Peoples”
hilarious bullshit....anyone spent time on a reservation knows many Indians are trash trashy abandoned trucks and refrigerators peoples.....which is why they farm out casinos and truck stops and oil exploration and mining to folks who are capable ....that chief said that with a straight face as he walks to the bank...you know sometimes people die in these tribal dust ups over who is shot caller and cash is involved.....they all have long arms and will use them
My kids were 4 and 7 the first time we drove through and Indian Reservation. Driving past the homemade junk yards and trash I told them not to believe everything they were told about how the American Indian is at one with nature, etc.
I wonder if they have to adhere to Canadian rules when it comes to worker safety and the environment?
Good one.
“I just want to celebrate” this rare earth find and operation.
This is not surprising at all.
In the late 70s and early 80s uranium in amazingly rich deposits was being processed in North Saskatchewan. They were throwing away ore that was better than the ‘good stuff’ in New Mexico and Colorado. I asked the mine operators if I could have a few hundred pounds of their ‘reject pile’. I figured I could have a pretty good time “salting” a few claim sites down south.
You can survey for uranium prospects with a scintillator and a helicopter. Rare earth exploration is much more painstaking (i.e. picks and shovels). Rare earths are often accompanied by uranium and or thorium in nature.
At least a source that is not controlled by the ChiComs. Though with the Maoist True-dope running (ruining) Canada, we’ll soon be a ChiCom subsidiary.
I thought the greenies outlawed open pit mines, because.
Good
No problem if you're more injun than Elizabeth Warren. Surely such noble, nature-loving people like indigenous folks would be good at taking care of the environment when doing rare earth extraction.
Or so the narrative tells us. LOL
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