Cummins Range, the largest undeveloped REE project in Australia, benefits from having a phosphate dominant overburden material that can be monetised as a direct shipping ore (DSO) material.
A planned, low-cost Stage 1 pre-strip development will see the production of an initial 300,000tpa of direct shipping ore phosphate, which will de-risk the expected 550,000tpa of higher value phosphate-rare earth dual mineral concentrate produced under the Stage 2 beneficiation operation.
The mineral concentrate is expected to contain about 169,000t of phosphate and 12,000t of TREO, enough for 2.5 million lithium-ferro-phosphate (LFP) electric vehicles annually.
The company has now secured 4 hectares of prime land under option for 5 years, an important step towards de-risking the infrastructure supply and export pathway for the project.
Not to mention, the land is also adjacent to KMG’s bulk mineral loading facility where RareX (ASX:REE) recently announced an infrastructure sharing term sheet.
A Call Option Deed has been signed with Mud Ark, giving REE the exclusive option to purchase freehold industrially allocated land at Wyndham Port for product storage and transfer of product from all stages of the Cummins Range project.
The agreed option fee is A$25k annually for up to five years with a purchase price of A$650k at the company’s election – should they chose to purchase the land.
The Call Option Deed includes the agreed form of the contract of sale that the parties will enter into should RareX elect to exercise its option to purchase the land.
“As a result of these recent breakthroughs, we now have the bulk loading facility infrastructure sharing term sheet signed with KMG for at least 600ktpa of ocean going vessel loading capacity and the adjacent 4 hectares of land locked up under an option agreement,” REE CEO James Durrant said.
“This materially de-risks the supply chain for our Cummins Range critical minerals project.”
“Coupled with the off-take MOU with Nitro, we are rapidly stitching together the supply and value chain for this project,” Durrant said.
Notably, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nitron – a US-headquartered global company that is the second largest distributor of fertilisers in the world – covers potential offtake of 250,000tpa of DSO phosphate under Stage 1 from 2025 and 250,000tpa of high-grade phosphate concentrate under Stage 2 from 2028.
REE will now begin preparing an integrated commercial and technical solution for the Port, tying together the storage area and the bulk loading facility.
