Goschen Central

The Goschen Central deposit is located approximately 50 km south-southwest of Swan Hill in northern Victoria (map below). The Goschen Central deposit sits within 80% owned ACDC Metals and 20% Providence and Gold Minerals Pty Ltd (PGM) exploration licence EL005278. EL005278 was originally granted to PGM in June 2010.

The Goschen Central Project (‘Project’) demonstrates strong economics based on a 14-year life of mine (‘LoM’).

The Scoping Study is based on a two-phase strategy:

Phase 1: Traditional heavy mineral sand operation, including, mining, beneficiation and associated infrastructure, to produce a zircon-titania heavy mineral sand concentrate (HMC) and a monazite-xenotime rare earth mineral concentrate (REMC).

Phase 2: Hydrometallurgical operation at a separate location to extract rare earth elements from the REMC and produce a mixed rare earth oxide (MREO). Plant located off mine-site to enable an efficient permitting pathway, simplified access to transport and chemical feed, and to enable third-party supply of monazite.

Key production and financial highlights are as follows:

• The Goschen Central processing plant is designed with a 6 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) nameplate capacity utilising a low-risk conventional flowsheet.
• $384M NPV8, IRR 24% (pre-tax) at base case pricing assumptions. Long term average forecast price assumption of US $120/kg NdPr.
• $613M NPV8, IRR 32% (pre-tax) at upside case pricing assumptions.
• Annual EBITDA of approximately $101M at base case pricing assumptions.
• Estimated capital cost for the Phase 1 heavy mineral sand operation totals $310M, inclusive of 10% ($29M) contingency.
• Capital cost for Phase 2 rare earth processing plant is funded from Phase 1 cashflows, and totals $103.5M inclusive of 10% ($12.6M) contingency, plus an additional $15.5M of modifications to the Phase 1 plant. The Phase 2 plant has a nameplate production capacity of 3,800 t/a of MREO.
• Average heavy mineral (HM) grade delivered to the beneficiation plant over the first 5 years is 2.9%, providing for an average production of:
  • 115,152 dmt/a of HMC (zircon and titania concentrates)
  • 6,824 dmt/a of REMC (phase 1)
  • 3,225 dmt/a of MREO (phase 2)
• A key advantage of the Goschen Central project is the dual product streams that lower project risk and help mitigate the volatility of the rare earth market. The base case phase 1 scenario demonstrates that HMC revenue covers >90% on average of total annual operating costs.
• Base case assumes that phase 2 integration commences in year 3 of operation.
• Overall TREO recovery of 85%.

Read the full Scoping Study here.

The 2024 Mineral Resource estimate used data from 258 holes (for a total of 11,655 m) drilled by CRA, PGM (and Iluka) and ACDC Metals from 1984 to 2024 (Table below). Data from holes drilled prior to 2022 were used solely for geological and mineralisation interpretation and the ACDC Metals holes were used for both interpretation and estimation. The geological and mineralisation interpretation was based on data from 258 drillholes and the estimation was based on data from 208 holes (for a total of 9,792 m) drilled by ACDC Metals between 2022 and 2024. A total of 5,206 samples, taken over 11,655 m, have been analysed for total HM. The historic drillholes and the 2022 ACDC Metals’ drillholes are generally located along roads and are spaced at 400 m (ACDC Metals) to 1,000 m (historic), with some infill sections at 300-400 m. The 2023 and 2024 ACDC Metals drillholes have generally been drilled on sections that are around 250 m apart and drillholes are generally spaced at approximately 250 m.

Drillholes used for 2024 Mineral Resource estimate

The total Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource, reported above a cut-off grade of 1% total HM, is 620 Mt with an average grade of 2.2% total HM. The total HM is estimated to contain 8.4% rutile, 11% leucoxene, 21% ilmenite, 22% zircon, 3.0% monazite, 0.45% xenotime and 2.7% total rare earth oxides (TREO).

Goschen Central deposit – 2024 Mineral Resource reported above a cut-off grade of 1% total HM

Notes:

• Mineral Resource reported above a cut-off grade of 1.0% total HM.
• The Goschen Central deposit Mineral Resource has been classified and reported in accordance with the guidelines of the JORC Code (2012).
• Total HM is from within the +38 µm to 1 mm size fraction and is reported as a percentage of the total material. Slimes is the -38 µm fraction and oversize is the +1 mm fraction.
• Estimates of the mineral assemblage (rutile, leucoxene, ilmenite, zircon, monazite and xenotime) and are presented as percentages of the total HM component, as determined from XRF, assay and QEMSCAN analysis. QEMSCAN data used the following breakpoints for definition of the titania minerals: rutile >98% TiO₂, leucoxene: 70 to 98% TiO₂ and ilmenite: 45 to 70% TiO₂.
• Rare earth oxides are from XRF data and are presented as percentages of the total HM component.
• All tonnages and grades have been rounded to reflect the relative uncertainty of the estimate.

Related links:

• ASX Announcement – 3 December 2024 – ACDC Metals Delivers Significant Upgrade at Goschen Central
• Goschen Central has been identified in the Victorian Critical Minerals Roadmap – Resources Victoria Critical Minerals Roadmap PDF