Investment in Chile's Aclara Rare Earth Project Increased to US$244 Million

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 19, Canadian mining company Aclara Resources released an updated preliminary economic assessment for its Penco rare earth project in Chile, raising the estimated construction investment to US$244 million, an increase of US$115 million compared with the 2021 assessment. The project is located in Chile's Biobío Region and is being jointly developed by Aclara and Chile's CAP Group. The planned mine operating life is 17 years, with average annual production of 732 tonnes of rare earth oxides contained in high-purity mixed rare earth carbonate.

The latest investment estimate includes approximately US$204 million in base construction costs and US$39.1 million in contingency. The adjustment involves optimization of the rare earth extraction process, updated equipment procurement quotations, improvements to environmental protection facilities, and changes in construction costs. The project plans to adopt Aclara's proprietary circular mineral harvesting process to treat ion-adsorption clay ore, with a designed solid material processing capacity of approximately 320 tonnes per hour. The process includes slurry conditioning, ion exchange, precipitation, impurity removal, and selective separation, among other stages, and the target product purity has been increased to 98.9% from the previously designed 91.9%.

The updated development plan is expected to process a cumulative total of approximately 30.8 million tonnes of ore-bearing material, an increase from 19.9 million tonnes in the 2021 assessment. The project's latest measured and indicated mineral resources total 35.8 million tonnes at an average rare earth oxide grade of 2,095 g/t, with an additional 2.2 million tonnes of inferred resources. The resource model was established using data from 618 drill holes, a cumulative total of 17,397 metres of drilling, and chemical assay data. In steady-state production years, average annual output is expected to be 44 tonnes of dysprosium oxide, 6 tonnes of terbium oxide, 400 tonnes of yttrium oxide, 31 tonnes of gadolinium oxide, and 128 tonnes of neodymium-praseodymium oxide, all of which are included in the mixed rare earth carbonate production.

Based on the price and cost assumptions used in this economic assessment, the project's after-tax net present value is US$344 million at an 8% discount rate, the after-tax internal rate of return is 26.1%, and the estimated payback period is 3.2 years. The estimated unit ore processing cost is US$28.9 per tonne, higher than US$13.6 per tonne in the 2021 assessment. The project is planned to consist of five mining areas, a rare earth processing plant, an ore stockpile area, a tailings storage area, and supporting power supply facilities, with a designed average power load of approximately 4 MW.

The project's first-phase environmental permit was approved in June 2026, covering the Victoria Norte, Luna, and Maite mining areas and supporting processing facilities. Aclara plans to complete the feasibility study in the first quarter of 2027, commence construction after securing financing, and targets completion of engineering construction in the second half of 2028.