St George Mining, Boston Metal engaged in MOE-based niobium production trial
St George Mining Limited has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Boston Metal to trial a new-generation processing technology at St George’s 100%-owned Araxá niobium-REE project in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Under the MoU, the companies intend to initiate a joint project to trial niobium production efficiencies through the use of Boston Metal’s molten oxide electrolysis, or MOE, technology.
As part of this project, Boston Metal will evaluate niobium from the Araxá project with the aim of assessing the application of MOE for ferroniobium production. The project has the potential to establish St George as an industry leader in sustainable processing for ferroniobium.
Boston Metal’s MOE technology electrifies metals production through a highly selective and efficient process that enables the use of a wide range of feedstocks, it says. The company is currently commissioning its first commercial plant in Brazil for the production of high-value critical metals, such as niobium.
The traditional process for ferroniobium production involves beneficiation through flotation, refining through hydrometallurgy (eg leaching) and conversion to ferroniobium through an aluminothermic process. The MOE technology has the potential to simplify the beneficiation process and to eliminate the refining and conversion steps, greatly reducing cost, waste and carbon emissions, Boston Metal claims.
The slag produced from the niobium processing is likely to have a high concentration of rare earths, potentially providing a further commercial advantage by reducing the processing costs in the rare earth production flow.
John Prineas, St George Mining’s Executive Chairman, said: “The MOE technology offers the opportunity for St George to develop a new generation of niobium processing at Araxá. This could deliver cleaner and lower-cost production for us and our stakeholders.
“Boston Metal is an industry leader in innovation for metals processing and we are delighted to have been selected to trial this opportunity to revolutionise niobium production.”
Tadeu Carneiro, CEO at Boston Metal, said: “We welcome the opportunity to deploy our MOE technology to help bring value to St George and advance clean and responsible metals production at the Araxá project.
“As an emerging global player in the niobium sector, our MOE technology has the potential to enable St George to deliver a sustainable and profitable pathway to production.”
St George and Boston Metal will collaborate on the potential to develop a flowsheet for the production of ferroniobium that utilises the MOE technology. Each party will bear its own costs of completing relevant workstreams. Boston Metal will use its proprietary technology for test work on St George’s niobium material.
Any long-term licensing of the MOE technology is subject to and conditional upon Boston Metal and St George negotiating and entering into a formal agreement, which will fully document the terms of the transaction contemplated. Until a formal agreement is entered into, nothing in the MOU creates an obligation on either party to engage exclusively with the other. St George remains able to pursue additional partnerships with other strategic investors and enter into other transactions involving the project.
In parallel to the test work with Boston Metal, St George is completing metallurgical test work on the Araxá ore using traditional processing that has been used in Araxá for more than 40 years – a low-cost technical model that is tried and proven and relatively simple to implement.
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