Ashram is the largest monazite-dominant carbonatite-hosted rare earth elements deposit in North America with an indicated resource of 73.2 million tonnes at 1.89% total rare earths oxide and 6.6% fluorspar and inferred resource of 131.1Mt at 1.91% TREO and 4% fluorspar, with over 21% neodymium-praseodymium distribution.
An update to the 2015 PEA is expected to be unveiled in just a couple of weeks.
A 2015 PEA found that Ashram could produce a 10% REO concentrate but work since then has indicated the project can produce a 36-37% concentrate.
The updated PEA will incorporated revised assumptions for site access, logistics, process throughput and the location of the downstream hydrometallurgical processing facility, with the revisions expected to reduce capital and operating costs and lower overall project execution and operating risks.
At the same time, the economics will benefit from a rise in NdPr prices.
Mont Royal managing director Nicholas Holthouse said recently the company would be presenting a smaller project with lower operational risk.
Logistics key
Given Ashram’s remoteness in the Nunavik territory of northern Quebec, the key piece of infrastructure Mont Royal needs to advance the project is a 300km access road, which has previously been estimated to cost C$300-600 million.
Natural Resources Canada has agreed to issue Mont Royal with a C$2.6 million grant to progress access road studies.
The company is progressing a study to link Ashram with the town of Schefferville, 300km to the south, where concentrate would then be placed on railcars and transported further south to the port city of Sept-Îles.
The new plan would reduce capital costs and technical risks, while also providing better access by avoiding ice-bound ports to the north.
Mont Royal has also signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the Saguenay Port Authority to potentially build its hydrometallurgical facility at the port, rather than at site.
The Port of Saguenay offers year-round access and an integrated port, road and rail logistics solution with access to power, water, gas and a skilled workforce.
The plan would be to ship or truck concentrate from Sept-Îles to the Saguenay.
“Along with that also comes a plug-and-play scenario for the plant itself,” Holthouse told Small Caps recently.
“We have gas, power and water right at the front doorstep of where we’re intending to build that plant, so a much cheaper place to build a plant and a much easier place and much lower technical risk around operating that piece of kit in that new location.
“So, all those things have come together to provide a very much cheaper and a much more robust project.”
Fluorspar sweetener
As well as being North America’s largest REE deposit, Ashram is the one of the world’s largest fluorspar deposits.
Like most other critical minerals, the fluorspar market is dominated by China, which is why it’s on the critical minerals lists of the US, Canada and EU.
Mont Royal sees huge opportunity to become a domestic supplier of met-spar, a lower-grade fluorspar product, though previous test work has proved Ashram can produce a higher-grade acid-spar product.
“We’re seeing [med-spar] as being quite a simple add-on to the flowsheet, but of course, we need to do that test work,” Holthouse said.
“The indicators are that we should be able to make that sort of product in the first instance and if you choose to later on down the track, either onsite or offsite, we can upgrade that material as well.”
Government support
Western governments have woken up to the challenges in the rare earths market due to China’s domination and export controls.
The US government invested in US producer MP Materials and provided a rare earths floor price, while the Australian government is backing Arafura Rare Earths, enabling it to yesterday make a final investment decision for its Nolans project in the Northern Territory.
Several weeks ago, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the country’s first sovereign wealth fund, the Canada Strong Fund, which has C$25 billion to invest in projects and companies across energy, critical minerals, agriculture and infrastructure.
Holthouse relocated from Australia to Montreal to tap into the growing interest and availability of lower-risk government funding for projects like Ashram.
This week, he was in Brussels as part of an Investissement Quebec delegation to attend the EIT RawMaterials Summit 2026, which was attended by industry, investors, governments and other stakeholders.The trip was aiming to showcase the Ashram project and Quebec’s role in the development of critical minerals, as well as hold discussions with potential partners and stakeholders.
