en.Wedoany.com Reported - Ark Mines (ASX:AHK) has produced a commercial-grade monazite product sample from its heavy mineral concentrate at the Sandy Mitchell deposit in Queensland, using IHC Robbins technology.

The feed material for the heavy mineral concentrate was sourced from the bulk retained portion of Ark Mines' resource drilling activities at the Sandy Mitchell deposit.

In the highest-grade stream, the total rare earth oxide grade reached 54.8%, with a yttrium oxide grade of 1.49%.

Among the total rare earth oxides, the proportion of praseodymium-neodymium oxide was 23.4%. The premium product contained 73.5% titanium dioxide, indicating strong titanium potential.

The test work also produced three additional product streams, with the coarse stream achieving a total rare earth oxide grade of 52.6%, and the expected combined total rare earth oxide grade for all four streams after blending was approximately 52.2%.

Cerium recovery across all four product streams was 65.43%. IHC Robbins indicated that this metric could be improved by recycling intermediate streams in a commercial plant.

The fine-grained monazite concentrate was obtained through reverse magnetic separation and triboelectric separation processes.

Studies are ongoing, with the second phase focusing on optimizing zircon, biotite, muscovite, and garnet product streams.

The study results are expected to inform the second phase of metallurgical test work currently being conducted by Ark Mines.

Ark Mines Managing Director Ben Emery stated that the product results represent a "truly significant step" for the Sandy Mitchell project.

Emery noted that the study bridges the gap between understanding the project's commercial potential and demonstrating it through the successful production of commercial-grade monazite and titanium products. The monazite product, with a total rare earth oxide grade of 54.8%, is near the upper end of normal commercial specifications. He emphasized that this was achieved through a simple gravity process, without the use of chemicals or crushing, with nature having done the work. While further metallurgical test work remains to be completed, these results provide confidence in the resource quality and help determine the most efficient commercial production processing path.

Ark Mines is a critical minerals exploration and development company with assets in North Queensland.

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