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Altona Rare Earths PLC on Wednesday said initial metallurgical test results from its Monte Muambe project in Mozambique were ‘very encouraging’, indicating strong potential to produce higher-value acid-grade fluorspar.
Shares in Altona Rare Earths rose 29% to 1.94 pence in London on Wednesday.
The Africa-focused resource exploration and development said flotation tests on ore samples yielded a concentrate with around 94% calcium fluoride, with impurity levels within or near acceptable thresholds for hydrofluoric acid production.
This suggests the project may be more suited for acid-spar than the previously envisioned met-spar used in steelmaking.
Altona said it will now proceed with advanced metallurgical testing to develop a full processing flowsheet and produce samples for potential offtake partners.
‘With the latest developments for the Monte Muambe fluorspar project,’ said Chief Executive Officer Cedric Simonet, ‘we now have an updated scope including a higher-value product and a higher-production capacity objective.’
The company also reported the discovery of new high-grade fluorspar outcrops during follow-up exploration of gallium soil anomalies. These findings point to the possibility of a larger resource than currently estimated.
With an indicative ore inventory of 3 to 4 million tonnes at 35% CaF2, Altona now envisages a 50,000 tonne per annum acid-spar operation over more than 12 years, compared to its previous plan of a 15,000 to 20,000 tonne met-spar operation.
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