Mount Weld

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The Mount Weld is a mineral deposit that is mined in open pit mining. It is located about 30 kilometers south of Laverton and 120 km east of Leonora in Western Australia. The mountain holds the biggest known deposits of rare earth metals outside of China in itself. It is located in the eastern goldfields of Western Australia.

REE mineralization in the Mount Weld incurred in the Proterozoic in a container filled with carbonatite volcanic vent. The minerals of the rare earths are formed when rocks under high pressure and temperatures falling into the earth's crust and solidified again.

The occurrence at Mount Weld, which was discovered in 1988, has a diameter of about 2.5 kilometers. In 2008, exploration drilling has been propelled to a depth of 5,346 meters in the southern part of the Mount Weld. Can be dismantled, the oxides of lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, dysprosium, europium and terbium. In the Carbonatitschlot boxes also contain niobium and tantalum, which are to be developed in the future.

The mining area is owned by the Lynas Mount Weld Corporation, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange ASX. The company has stated that it will make further mining surveying at Mount Weld. To finance this expansion, the U.S. bank JP Morgan, Lynas has granted in 2009 a loan of 450 million Australian dollars.

The Seltenerdvorkommen in Mount Weld is divided into two spatially adjacent development fields, the Central Lanthanide Deposit ( CLD ) and the Duncan Deposit. The CLD includes estimates that in 2012 14.9 million tons Seltenerderz - above a cut-off of 2% Seltenerdoxidgehalt - with an average of 9.8% content, corresponding to 1.46 million tons of rare earth oxides. The Duncan Deposit is currently estimated at 9.0 million tonnes at an average grade of 4.8% rare earth oxides, corresponding to 431.600 tons and includes current state of the metal analyzes strikingly higher levels of heavier rare earths. Overall, the current estimates for the deposits of Seltenerdmineralien located in Mount Weld at 23.9 million tonnes at an average grade of 7.9%, 1.9 million tons of rare earth oxides entsprtechend. Meanwhile, the Lynas Corp. commissioned Mount Weld concentration plant to acid decomposing ore with an annual capacity of 11,000 tons of rare earth oxides enriched in trial operation that has a recovery rate of 70.6 %. The expansion of the concentration plant to 22,000 tonnes has already been addressed.

The Lynas Corporation has begun the further processing in a newly built factory in mid-2013 in Kuantan, Malaysia. Originally the work was to be opened in early 2013 with an annual production of 22,000 tons. For this purpose, a contract was signed with a Japanese company. With Siemens, a joint venture for the production of permanent magnets was founded. Protests of the population because of the fear of the release of radioactive thorium in the workup of Seltenerderzkonzentrate delivered a considerable delay in the approval and commissioning of the plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA created this in 2011, a report with recommendations for measures to be implemented. A preliminary approval by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board in Malaysia has been granted for appeals of citizens movement "Save Malaysia Stop Lynas " only in September 2012.

The state-owned Chinese resource company, the China Non Ferrous Metal Mining has, in 2009 tried to buy up property Sans parts of Lynas, which did not allow the Australian authorities. As China will export 35 percent less rare earths in the next two years, the occurrence at Mount Weld has great economic importance over Australia also.