To emphasise the importance of Hastings’ latest results, management has noted that the global benchmark ratio of zircon to hafnium, as quoted by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), is 50:1. In contrast, during testwork for process development at the Yangibana project, the ratio of zirconium and hafnium content was found to be 13:1, with concentrations of 49.05 per cent zirconium and 3.78 per cent hafnium – or 3.8 times per cent higher than the benchmark.

Management says it needs to make only minor changes to its current plant and mine design to recover the extra metals, suggesting the company may have fallen on another rich, add-on source of cash flow from a project that is already proving its credentials as a future significant supplier of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr). The light rare earths are seen as essential for producing permanent magnets used in the motors of electric vehicles (EVs) and wind turbines.

Hastings’ news of the zirconium-hafnium mineralisation comes hot on the heels of its recent discovery of 0.87 per cent niobium in drill core samples at Bald Hill that could be concentrated up to 16.88 per cent using low magnet separation. Now fully permitted for mining, the Yangibana project contains one of the most highly-valued deposits of NdPr in the world, with an NdPr to TREO ratio of up to 52 per cent in some areas of the orebody.

The estimated mineral resource at Yangibana stands at 29.93 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.93 per cent TREO and it has a proved and probable mineral reserve of 20.93 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.9 per cent TREO. The project has an initial mine life of 17 years and post funding, it is expected to be ready to meet the growing demand for rare earths being driven by a global shift towards renewable energy and electric transportation.

Further exploration and drilling work at Yangibana is planned, with an eye to extending the mine’s lifespan as new mineral resources are identified. Hastings expects to deliver a resource estimate by the end of next month and it will now include additional critical minerals such as ferro-columbite and the hafnium-enriched zircon.

Additionally, the company has continued to assess downstream processing opportunities in a bid to boost the value of its rare earths production, with a longer-term hope of developing what it refers to as a “mine to magnet” supply chain.

Yangibana appears to be turning into a one-stop shop for those chasing critical metals for the technologies of the future. With so many elements present in the orebody, it is likely to attract the attention of western governments as they seek to secure supply against a backdrop of increasing Chinese policies leading to export restrictions on that country’s metals.

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