Namibia Critical Metals Inc. has filed the independent NI 43-101 Pre-Feasibility Study technical report for its Lofdal Heavy Rare Earths Project, following the public release of the study’s results in December 2025.
The filing covers the “Lofdal 2B-4” development scenario and sets out the economic and technical basis for advancing one of the few advanced heavy rare earth projects outside China.
The study evaluates the project under two pricing frameworks: a Base Case reflecting partial easing of Chinese export constraints, and a Divergent Case that assumes prolonged export controls, slow non-Chinese separation capacity growth and rising strategic demand from original equipment manufacturers.
Mining, processing and capital assumptions are identical in both cases, with pricing the only variable.
Under the Base Case, the study estimates a pre-tax net present value of US$389.2 million at a 5% discount rate and an after-tax NPV of US$275.5 million, with a pre-tax internal rate of return of 21.7% and an after-tax IRR of 19.0%.
The Divergent Case produces a pre-tax NPV of US$1.25 billion and an after-tax NPV of US$747.9 million, with IRRs of 44.1% pre-tax and 34.8% after-tax.
Total capital costs are estimated at US$347.9 million, including contingency, with after-tax capital payback of 4.2 years in the Base Case and 2.75 years under the Divergent Case.
The results build on the PFS release announced in early December 2025, which highlighted dysprosium, terbium and yttrium as the main economic drivers of the project. Namibia Critical Metals president Darrin Campbell said Lofdal is positioned as one of a limited number of advanced Dy-Tb and yttrium projects outside China, supported by its permitting status, jurisdiction and joint-venture structure with the Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security.
Lofdal is located in the Kunene Region, about 25 kilometres northwest of Khorixas, with access to Walvis Bay via the national road network.
The project is covered by Mining Licence ML200, issued in May 2021 for a 25-year term to 2046, and held by the company’s subsidiary Namibia Rare Earths (Pty) Ltd., with a 5% shareholding reserved for historically disadvantaged Namibians.
Geologically, the deposit forms part of the Neoproterozoic Lofdal Intrusive Complex, where heavy rare earth mineralisation occurs in structurally controlled zones of hydrothermal alteration.
Xenotime is the dominant rare-earth mineral, giving the deposit its heavy rare-earth character.
The study focuses on the Area 4 and Area 2B zones, supported by more than 58,000 metres of drilling completed over the past 15 years.
The mine plan outlined in the filing is based on conventional open-pit mining using contractor-operated drill-and-blast methods.
Proven and probable reserves of 32 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.176% total rare earth oxides underpin an initial 13-year mine life, with a blended feed of high-grade and low-grade material supplying the processing plant.
Processing is designed around a two-stream approach. Higher-grade ore feeds directly into flotation, while lower-grade material is upgraded using XRT ore sorting before flotation.
Test work included in the PFS shows that sorting can reject waste and significantly upgrade feed grades, supporting improved recoveries and operating margins.
Metallurgical test programmes, including pilot-scale flotation and hydrometallurgical work, were used to validate the flowsheet and to generate a mixed rare-earth carbonate product.
The simplified hydrometallurgical design eliminates several steps from earlier studies, reducing reagent demand and overall process complexity.
Infrastructure planning within the study includes groundwater supply from borefields near Fransfontein and a bulk power solution combining grid electricity with a solar component.
The design incorporates a new 132 kV transmission line, substation infrastructure, and a tailings storage facility sized to accommodate potential mine-life extension.
The pricing assumptions underpinning the two scenarios reflect the growing divergence between Chinese domestic prices and higher ex-China prices for heavy rare earths.
The Base Case uses long-term prices of US$663/kg for dysprosium oxide, US$2,880/kg for terbium oxide and US$60/kg for yttrium oxide.
At the same time, the Divergent Case assumes materially higher prices under sustained supply tightness.
The filing concludes that Lofdal remains economically robust under conservative assumptions while offering substantial upside leverage under tighter global supply conditions.
Recommendations include further drilling at Area 5 and infill drilling at Area 2B to support satellite pits and a potential mine-life extension.
