Astron and new dance partner, United States-based Energy Fuels, executed a binding joint venture (JV) agreement in June this year to develop its world-class Donald project, with the latter kicking in $183 million to fully fund the first phase of development.

Energy Fuels will issue $US17.5 million (AU$26.2 million) worth of its shares to Astron to take a 49 per cent interest in the JV. Astron will retain a 51 per cent share and manage the operation.

While the terms of the JV are awaiting final approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board, Energy Fuels has wasted no time in sole-funding activities by way of an interest-free loan. The two companies have agreed to a revised timeline for the project, with a financial investment decision (FID) expected before year’s end and production touted as soon as 2026.

The total resource across the project’s namesake Donald deposit and the Jackson lode sits at a whopping 2.63 billion tonnes grading 4.4 per cent HM.

The Donald deposit is the company’s most advanced operation and already boasts an 825 million-tonne resource going 4.5 per cent HM, with 17.8 per cent zircon, 7.2 per cent rutile, 28.4 per cent ilmenite, 21.1 per cent leucoxene and 1.7 per cent monazite.

As part of the initial mining phase, the JV will mine 7.5 million tonnes of ore per year to produce about 250,000 tonnes per annum of HM concentrate and about 7000 to 8000 tonnes per year of rare earths concentrate for 41.5 years. The second phase of mining is expected to see those figures double to 15 million tonnes mined each year to produce between 400,000 and 500,000 tonnes of HM concentrate and 13,000 to 14,000 tonnes of rare earths concentrate per annum.

Energy Fuels’ will pick up the rare earths package for processing at its White Mesa facility in Utah – the only commercial rare earths processing plant in North America capable of producing advanced products from the materials. Astron will have the right to enter into an offtake agreement for 100 per cent of the project’s heavy minerals concentrate for processing at its mineral separation plant in Yingkou, or to enter into offtake agreements with third parties.

The Donald project sits in Victoria’s Murray-Darling Basin, about 250km north-west of Melbourne, and is expected to deliver an eye-watering $3.87 billion in free cash during its first-phase mine life of 41.5 years.

In turbulent times that are proving challenging for the junior resource sector to raise capital, Astron has tapped into a cash-flow stream from its Yingkou HM heavy mineral separation plant in China and nailed down a well-funded JV partnership to develop its world-class rare earths and heavy mineral asset in Victoria. All in a day’s work it would seem for this budding critical minerals producer.

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