Arafura will process mineral concentrate from the Nolans Bore Mine at its Rare Earths Complex on the northern outskirts of Whyalla, about 400 kilometres north-west of Adelaide, on the western shores of Spencer Gulf. 

Whyalla emerged as the preferred location for the Rare Earths Complex after an exhaustive Australia-wide site selection process. Factors in support of Whyalla include access to key infrastructure such as a good road, rail and port facilities, access to a skilled workforce, proximity to seawater for a desalination plant, and the support of the South Australian Government for the project.

The Whyalla Rare Earths Complex will comprise a series of chemical plants and a processing plant where chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and sulphuric acid will leach out the rare earths, phosphate and uranium, for ultimate recovery and sale.

About 700,000 tonnes of mineral concentrate, rich in rare earths and phosphate minerals, will arrive each year at the Whyalla Complex by rail from the Nolans Bore Mine. Separation of the mineral concentrate into two main processing streams – one for rare earths, and one for phosphate – will be through a patented pre-leach process based on hydrochloric acid.

Further treatment of each processing stream will recover rare earths, phosphate, gypsum and uranium as:

• Rare earth oxides - 20,000 tonnes a year of REO;

• Phosphate - 80,000 tonnes per year of a solid phosphate product

• Gypsum - 500,000 tonnes a year; and 

• Uranium oxide - 150 tonnes a year of UO4. Uranium and other impurities, such as iron, thorium and aluminium, must be removed from the rare earths stream in order to produce saleable rare earth products.

Over the next 15 months, Arafura Resources will seek environmental approvals from the South Australian and Australian governments for the Whyalla Rare Earths Complex. This will include extensive community consultation with the Whyalla community before construction.