Browns Range Project

Browns Range Project

Team Members

Browns Range Project Overview

Northern Mineral’s strategic objective is to develop Browns Range and focus on being a producer of Dysprosium & Terbium, which are critical to high performance magnet production

Key Details

Location c.160km south-east of Halls Creek on the northern edge of the Tanami Desert in Western Australia
Ownership 100% Northern Minerals Ltd
Stage Final DFS scheduled completion Q4 2024 and Final Investment Decision targeted Q1 2025 First production targeted Q4 2027
Mining Conventional open pit mining followed by underground mining using sublevel caving
Processing Conventional beneficiation producing a c.25% TREO concentrate
LOM 8+ years
Power Examining off-grid renewable power solutions
Other non-process infrastructure Existing near mine infrastructure in place, including access to camp and roads
Design underway / complete for:
On-site airstrip upgrade
Tailings storage facility
Access road / earthworks
Accom. village and associated buildings
Inbound / outbound cargo logistics
Surface water management and water supply system

Appendix A: Mineral Resource

Global Mineral Resource Estimate (October 2022)1,2

1. Rounding may cause some computational discrepancies (TREO (metal) tonnes estimated from Mt x TREO%)

TREO = Total Rare Earth Oxides - La2O3, CeO2, Pr6011, Nd2O3, SM203, Eu203, Gd2O3, Tb407, Dy203, Ho2O3, Er2O3, Tm203, Yb2O3, Lu2O3, Y203;

HREO = Heavy Rare Earth Oxides - Total of Sm203, Eu2O3, Gd2O3, Tb407, Dy203, Ho2O3, Er2O3, Tm2O3, Yb2O3, Lu2O3, Y203

HREO% = HREO/TREO*100

2. Mineral Resource based on the Company's ASX announcement titled "Updated Wolverine Mineral Resource estimate at Browns Range" dated 10 October 2022, which is available to view at www.asx.com.au under the code "NTU".

Wolverine Deposit: Near Term Development With a Clear Pathway to Production

Strategic objective to bring the Wolverine deposit into production and focus on being a producer of Dysprosium & Terbium

Browns Range Pilot Plant Ore Sorter

Indicative timeline:

  • Update of Final DFS – target Q4 2024
  • Final Investment Decision – targeting Q1 2025
  • First production – targeting Q4 2027

Key Approvals in Place and Prior Work Enabling Accelerated Start Up:

  • Ministerial Statement approved
  • Native Title and Heritage Agreements in place with the Jaru Aboriginal Corporation and Tjurabalan Native Title Land Aboriginal Corporation
  • Project critical tenure granted
  • Existing NPI (camp, airstrip, tailings dam)3
  • High retention of a skilled workforce with experience in remote operations
Iluka Supply Agreement

Browns Range further strengthened by long-term supply and funding arrangements with domestic partner Iluka Resources

Long-term supply partnership

  • Supply of up to 5.5 kt contained TREO in concentrate per year
  • Total of 30.5 kt TREO to be delivered
  • 100% of concentrate to be delivered by NTU and purchased by Iluka (within agreed bands)

Funding commitment

  • Cornerstone equity funding post FID

Strategic significance

  • Browns Range concentrate to be feedstock for Australia first integrated rare earth refinery

Upside value share

  • Price received includes fixed price component plus upside price sharing mechanism based on realised price

Excess production

  • Iluka has ROFR on production in excess of maximum annual amount

Geology

Northern Minerals assets sit within a uniquely Dy and Tb rich mineral setting in the Kimberley with its structural geology and minerology well understood

Overview

  • The Wolverine deposit is the largest known within the Browns Range system and the style of mineralisation is xenotime hydrothermal breccia, a rare earths hosting mineral particularly rich in heavy rare earths
  • The Wolverine, Gambit West, Gambit and Area 5 deposits are all within the Browns Range Project area, located wholly inside the granted mining lease M80/627 in Western Australia, with the Company also owning separate tenements nearby in the Northern Territory
  • Browns Range holds a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 10.82 Mt @ 0.76% Total Rare Earth Oxides (“TREO”), with the Wolverine deposit accounting for 6.44 Mt @ 0.96% TREO, comprising 61,492 tonnes of TRE
  • Northern Minerals is on track to incorporate assay results from the recent Drilling Program at the Wolverine deposit into the MRE by the end of Q3 CY2024.

This will enable the Company to finalise the Browns Range Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) which is targeted for completion in Q4 CY2024.

Clear Pathway to Production

Northern Minerals has conducted a strategic review of the business led by Executive Chair, Nick Curtis, and has mapped a clear path forward to production

Company Timeline

Regulatory Approvals Summary

Northern Minerals has achieved all primary approvals required to progress through FID

Mining

Commencing with open pit, transition to Sub Level Retreat (SLR)

Mining Overview

  • Wolverine will be mined via both open pit and underground methods, for 8+ years1
  • A box-cut and decline will commence concurrently with the open pit, to ensure underground ore is ready for extraction upon completion of the pit.
  • Underground mining will be via sub-level retreat (“SLR”) caving.
  • Cave flow modelling by Beck Engineering
  • Extensive geotechnical testwork and coverage
  • Leading Perth-based mining consultant Entech Pty Ltd, has been engaged to carry out the mining studies.

1. The Company refers to its ASX announcement titled “NTU – Company Presentation” dated 11 July 2023, which is available to view at www.asx.com.au under the code “NTU”. Slide 10 of that announcement contained the following statement: “Mining production rate 910,000 t / year for 8+ years”. The Company confirms that this statement was included in the announcement in error, withdraws the statement, and confirms that the statement should have read: “Wolverine will be mined via both open pit and underground methods, for 8+ years”.

Processing

Beneficiation of ore from the Wolverine deposit producing a xenotime concentrate for supply to Iluka’s rare earth refinery at Eneabba

Processing Overview

  • Processing flowsheet is a well-understood beneficiation process that will produce a c.25% TREO xenotime concentrate rich in Dy and Tb.
  • Flowsheet design informed by three years of processing ore through a large-scale pilot plant, producing 281t of rare earths carbonate from 1,140t of xenotime concentrate to date.
  • Partnering with an external hydrometallurgical and separation plant for the xenotime concentrate, such as Iluka’s Eneabba refinery, represents an accelerated, lower cost, and lower risk approach compared to Northern Minerals also developing a hydrometallurgical circuit to produce a more refined intermediate product, such as a carbonate or oxide.
  • Northern Minerals is currently undertaking a dual-party Early Contractor Involvement process with the intention of signing an EPC contract for the delivery of the beneficiation process plant, with the preferred contractor anticipated to be selected in Q4 2023.
Mine Operations
& Proposed Layout

Pilot Plant operations enabled establishment of key base operational requirements that will be expanded

  • Airstrip, offices and a worker’s village
  • Gravel access roads to the mine and around the mine site
  • Power supply come from diesel generators, solar panels and possibly wind turbines
  • Water supply from a bore-field in Gardiner Sandstone
  • Tailings storage facility
  • Inert and putrescible landfill facility on site
  • Village Waste Water Treatment Plant and spray field
  • Water management structures