Junior gains $1.1m government grant

PERTH-based junior Lynas Gold NL has received a research and development grant of $1.1 million from the Federal Government’s Industry Research and Development Board, through AusIndustry.

Lynas managing director Les Emery said the grant, which will further boost development of its Mt Weld rare earth project, is a vote of confidence in the ability of smaller Australian resource companies to become key suppliers of strategic materials to the expanding worldwide technology industry.

“The immediate impact of the grant will be to increase investment in the feasibility study to $4.3 million, which would enable the evaluation of downstream process opportunities,” he said.

The project has the potential to convert monazite worth around $350 per tonne to a variety of high value strategic materials with typical selling prices of between $5,000 and $12,000 per tonne.