Australian Iluka Forges Ahead in Rare Earth Industry

Australian sands miner Iluka Resources has completed the first phase of its diversification into a rare earth producer in Western Australia. The company is set to begin producing ready-for-processing rare earths material and has raised the prospect of building its own plant in Australia.

The Perth-based company is the world’s largest zircon producer. The company has approved a 35 million Australian dollars ($25 million) budget to advance the development of the second phase of its Eneabba project in Western Australia. The project will focus on the production of a 90% monazite concentrate, which can be directly supplied to rare earth cracking and leaching plants for processing.

The company said it is taking a "gradual approach" to enter the rare earth market. The current demand in this market is constantly growing, driven by electric vehicles, wind turbines, energy storage, and other high-tech solutions.

Iluka expects that the second phase of Eneabba project will supply 16,000-20,000 tons of monazite concentrate to the rare earth market every year within 10 years while producing 7,000-9,000 tons of zircon, 20,000 tons of ilmenite, and 1,000 tons of HyTi90 (a low-value rutile product). The project is expected to recover its investment within one year of production.

The first phase of Eneabba started production in April and shipped 9,000 tons of monazite-zircon concentrate on an export partner for the first time in June. The agreement is for two years and 50,000 tons per year.

The Eneabba project, located about 287 kilometers north of Perth, is dedicated to the extraction, processing, and sales of high-grade monazite, which includes a certain amount of neodymium and praseodymium, which are essential components of permanent magnets in batteries. It is estimated that the two phases of the project will process a total of 100,000 tons of reserve ore each year.

Although Iluka is actively exploring the potential for downstream processing of rare earths, it said that the phased development approach allows it to deepen its understanding of the market and industry and work in a low-risk manner.

In addition to being the world's leading zircon producer, Australian Iluka has also become an important producer of ilmenite, rutile, and artificial rutile through its operations in Australia and Sierra Leone. And the company is forging to the rare earth industry.

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