Lindian Resources has detonated its first production blast at the Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, formally crossing the threshold from developer to active miner and setting the clock ticking towards a December quarter first output target.
Drilling for Malawi’s rare earth future: a Lindian Resources rig prepares the first blast holes at the Kangankunde open pit.
The blast — drilled and fired across 206 holes — fragmented 13,100 tonnes of material, including an estimated 5,500 tonnes of ore.
Haulage is already under way using the company’s owner-operated Komatsu fleet, with run-of-mine stockpiles accumulating ahead of plant commissioning.
The decision to begin mining before the processing plant is operational is a deliberate risk-management strategy.
By building ore inventories now, management is insulating the project against the commissioning delays that have undermined otherwise well-executed mining developments.
Front-end commissioning is targeted for October, with practical completion in mid-November.
Executive director Zac Komur said the milestone demonstrated the pace at which the project had advanced.
“In less than twelve months from Final Investment Decision, Lindian has advanced from construction into mining, with ore already delivered to the ROM stockpile ahead of process plant commissioning later this year,” he said.
Kangankunde is expected to produce a premium monazite concentrate grading 55 per cent total rare earth oxides, without the deleterious elements that complicate processing at competing deposits.
The company says the project remains fully funded and on schedule.
Lindian is also scoping its next phase of growth. Engineering group DRA Global is leading a stage-two feasibility study due in December, examining a four-million-tonne-per-annum expansion pathway that could lift total concentrate capacity to 120,000 tonnes a year, subject to a further investment decision.
Executive chairman Robert Martin held meetings in Lilongwe with Mining Minister Thoko Tembo during the week, underscoring the political significance of a project that Malawi views as a cornerstone of its ambitions to monetise its mineral endowment at a time of surging global demand for rare earth elements driven by the clean energy transition.
The commissioning clock now runs to October.
Whether Lindian can deliver on its timetable will determine whether Kangankunde joins the narrow ranks of rare earths projects that have successfully navigated from discovery to production.
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