Lindian Resources has won approval for a significant expansion of its licenced mining area for the Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi.
The Australian company’s application to expand its target zone was approved by the Mining and Minerals Regulatory Authority in Malawi. It has agreed to a more than 100 per cent increase in the licence area, from 900 hectares to 2500 hectares.
The expanded footprint will support an increase in production as the project moves into its second stage. The project’s stage one target was the production of 15,300 tonnes of monazite concentrate per annum. This will increase to up to 100,000 tonnes per annum in stage two.
Much of the planned production is subject to a right of first refusal deal with Iluka Resources. If Iluka provides debt funding for at least 50 per cent of the stage two expansion costs, it will have access to a maximum of 25,000 tonnes of additional concentrate per year for 15 years.
Lindian Resources executive chair Robert Martin said the company was confident of finding buyers for the remaining production output.
“The upgrade of our stage two expansion area from an exploration licence to a mining licence allows Lindian to work in parallel on our larger stage two expansion whilst using the learnings from our stage one production facility,” he said.
“The company continues to field additional inbound enquiries and is currently working on multiple pathways for further strategic offtake and funding agreements.”