Namibia Critical Metals has approved approximately C$11 million to begin engineering work for a commercial rare earth processing plant at the Lofdal Heavy Rare Earth Project rather than exporting mineral concentrate.
The funding, approved by the Joint Management Committee comprising Namibia Critical Metals, Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) and Toyota Tsusho Corporation, marks the start of one of the most important stages of the project’s Definitive Feasibility Study.
It will finance a comprehensive programme of pilot-scale metallurgical and geometallurgical work to determine whether Lofdal ore can be processed commercially into separate light and heavy rare-earth carbonate products.
Rather than approving construction of a processing plant, the partners have authorised the work needed to design and de-risk such a facility.
The programme will generate the engineering and operating data required for detailed plant design, project financing and eventual commercial development, while helping establish whether Namibia can retain more value from its rare earth resources through downstream processing.
The first major contracts under the expanded programme have been awarded to SGS Canada, which will undertake pilot-scale flotation, integrated hydrometallurgical testing, rare-earth separation studies, and geometallurgical analysis.
Approximately 30 tonnes of representative ore will undergo continuous pilot-scale flotation before moving through acid baking, leaching, solvent extraction and precipitation to demonstrate production of separate Light Rare Earth Carbonate (LREC) and Heavy Rare Earth Carbonate (HREC) products.
The work also includes a comprehensive geometallurgical programme that uses 98 representative samples from across the Lofdal deposit to refine processing models, improve mine planning, and optimise future plant performance.
In addition, the studies are expected to establish engineering design criteria, improve recoveries, reduce reagent consumption, support environmental permitting and substantially reduce technical risks ahead of completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study.
Namibia Critical Metals President and Chief Executive Officer Darrin Campbell said the approval represented the beginning of the next major execution stage of the expanded Lofdal project and reflected the continued commitment of Namibia Critical Metals, JOGMEC and Toyota Tsusho to advancing one of the world’s most strategically important heavy rare earth developments.
He said the metallurgical programme would substantially de-risk the processing component of the project while generating the engineering information required for detailed design and project financing.
Campbell added that the work would move Lofdal beyond conventional concentrate production towards higher-value rare earth products, supporting Namibia’s ambition to build downstream critical minerals industries while strengthening secure and diversified supply chains for Japan and other allied economies.
Lofdal is regarded as one of the world’s most advanced undeveloped heavy rare earth projects and contains significant quantities of dysprosium, terbium and yttrium, minerals that are essential for the permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, advanced electronics and defence technologies.
