Aclara Resources (TSX: ARA) is working through a difficult financing climate to build a mine-to-magnet supply chain outside China, Executive Vice-President José Augusto Palma said.
The Toronto-based company expects a permit decision on its Penco heavy rare earth project in Chile by June and to release a bankable feasibility study for its Carina project in Brazil this month, while a Louisiana separation plant has entered commissioning.
“What kills us, and not just us, but the industry in general, is the cost of capital,” Palma told The Northern Miner’s Western Editor, Henry Lazenby, last month at the PDAC convention in Toronto. “We can be just as competitive, if not more than the Chinese.”
The company is looking at capex of about $1.3 billion (C$1.8 billion) to build the two mines and the U.S. plant while talking to potential project partners.
Aclara wants to control the first three steps of the chain, from mine feed in Chile and Brazil to separation in Louisiana, so it can sell carbonate, oxides or alloys into an independent market.
Watch the full interview below:
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