Hastings Technology Metals (ASX: HAS) is ramping up its efforts to prove up niobium as a credible add-on to its rare earths mission at its Yangibana project on Gifford Creek Station, 250km north-east of Carnarvon in Western Australia.
The strategy has gained momentum after the company today revealed that historic drilling data and rock-chip samples from around the project were showing high niobium grades and positive recoveries were reported in metallurgical testwork.
Management says it has completed initial metallurgical tests on selected reverse- circulation (RC) drill-chip samples from four separate holes and intervals at its Bald Hill South prospect, which were combined and blended in equal proportions into a composite test feed.
Following initial gravity separation of finely-crushed feed material via Wifley table and low-intensity magnet separation, the first testwork recovered and concentrated the ferro-columbite from an initial 0.87 per cent niobium pentoxide feed to 16.88 per cent niobium pentoxide – representing a more than 19-fold concentration factor.
It has added an edge of intrigue to the project in WA’s Gascoyne region, which is well known for its pegmatite-hosted and other types of rare earths mineralisation. Some of those occurrences have been mined and prospected extensively for the lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT)-type and related rare earths mineral suites for decades.
Hastings believes additional potential for its Yangibana play may lie in niobium by-product credits, which could supplement its primary rare earths focus that is directed mainly on the respective high-value light and heavy “magnet” elements, neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) and dysprosium and terbium (DyTb).
The two classes of rare earths are important in the manufacture of efficient and temperature-resistant magnets used in power-generation systems, motors for electric vehicles (EVs) and other renewable energy fields, robotics and digital devices. The most commonly-known tantalum and niobium oxide minerals are tantalite and columbite, respectively.
Niobium is listed as a critical and strategic mineral and has long been of significant value in strengthening steel, especially in military applications such as gun barrels and their internal coatings and in armour plate. It is also used as an alloying agent and for jewellery, but its most interesting applications are in the field of superconductivity and in new-generation niobium-lithium-ion batteries that offer reduced charging times and extended battery life.
And the light-grey metal has also recently been the catalyst for a handful of share price hikes – most notably for WA1 Resources, which recorded a giddying hike of more than 19,233 per cent on the back of a niobium discovery at its Luni deposit in WA’s north-east.
Hastings says columbite concentrations occur at its Yangibana project in the form of the mineral ferro-columbite in a 4km long strike at its Simon’s Find and Bald Hill deposits. Just as niobium mineralisation is widely spread throughout the Gascoyne region, the same also applies to the Yangibana area and the presence of niobium-rich minerals is not just limited to the Bald Hill-Simon’s Find trend.
The company says columbite mineralisation occurs in all of its Yangibana rare earths prospects and that ferro-columbite is notably extensive in the fenitised footwalls and hanging walls of all its intrusive ironstones.
At Simon’s Find, ferro-columbite occurs in the ironstone hosting the monazite rare earths and also in the fenite alteration next to the ironstone. Further along strike north of Simon’s Find, niobium occurrences extend into the southern domain of the Bald Hill prospect, meaning there is at least 4000m of strike along which niobium values are elevated.
Hastings previously revealed several significant niobium-rich intercepts from historic drilling at Simon’s Find including 5.45m at 5.3 per cent niobium pentoxide from 27.55m in one hole and 10m at 2.66 per cent niobium pentoxide from 7m in another. They are supported by two other drillholes that gave up intriguing intercepts of 21m at 1.64 per cent niobium pentoxide from 34m and 15m at 1.82 per cent niobium pentoxide from 61m.
Most importantly, the niobium-rich goodness has also been identified in significant occurrences close to Simon’s Find, in drill chips at the Bald Hill and Hatchett rare earths prospects and in rock outcrops at the company’s Yangibana and Yangibana South prospects. Notable niobium-mineralised drill intercepts include 11m at 0.54 per cent niobium pentoxide from 24m, 12m at 0.47 per cent niobium pentoxide from 55m and 6m at 0.7 per cent niobium pentoxide from 17m.
From a resource extension point of view, Hastings still has a big chunk of geophysics from its 2018 surveys that show other high-priority drill targets. That upside is amplified further by the fact that more than 90 per cent of the drilling to date has been less than 100m deep and the small amount of deeper drilling shows that the rare earths-mineralised ferro-carbonatite bodies show robust continuity to depth.
In parallel with our focus on developing the Yangibana Rare Earths Project, Hastings is committed to expanding the portfolio of minerals that can be produced at Yangibana. The confirmation of the presence of ferro-columbite mineralisation, together with initial testwork demonstrating recoveries of ferro-columbite, provides us with strong initial data to determine and develop the viability of producing niobium from Yangibana.
Hastings Technology Metals Chief Geologist Dr Louis Schurmann
The Yangibana project contains one of the most highly-valued deposits of NdPr in the world, with an NdPr to total rare earth oxides (TREO) ratio of up to 52 per cent in some areas of the orebody.
The estimated mineral resource at Yangibana stands at 29.93 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.93 per cent TREO and it has a proved and probable mineral reserve of 20.93 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.9 per cent TREO, which Hastings says will support an expected mine life of at least 17 years.
The estimated resource has been defined through just 24km of strike length, but further strong exploration potential has been identified for more than 42km of additional strike.
The project’s highlight is the percentage of the key magnet rare earths that are expected to be mined from the orebody during the life of mine. Hastings says the NdPr content could be a stellar 37 per cent and in some places, better than 50 per cent.
The company has already spent $154 million on key infrastructure at Yangibana and the project is fully permitted. It places Hastings in good shape for immediate mine development and it can expect to be well-timed to meet the forecast supply gap for rare earths, which is being accelerated by the rapid growth in EVs and wind turbines – both key elements in the global energy transition.
The Yangibana operation is proposed to be developed in two stages, with an initial focus on the construction of the mine and beneficiation plant to produce 37,000 tonnes per annum of mixed rare earths concentrate. The possibility of later downstream processing is also being contemplated, which would require the addition of a hydrometallurgical plant that is likely to be offsite.
Subject to metallurgical testwork, the plant design can be modified to accept add-on modules to process niobium alongside rare earths and the company could be in production by the end of 2026, placing it well ahead of other companies wanting to mine niobium.
Immediate further work on the possible incorporation of niobium production in Hastings’ current plant design will include additional metallurgical testwork and establishing a maiden niobium resource estimate for Simon’s Find and Bald Hill before the end of the year. That will determine how a niobium byproduct could best be extracted from Yangibana and whether a multi-commodity recovery process stream can be established to give the company a little extra punch.
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