Australia's junior explorers - The ASIA Miner

PLANT number 3 of Stans Energy’s Kashka
Rare Earths Plant in the Kyrgyz Republic will
be ready for operational testing by mid-July.
By August 30 the plant is expected to be
ready to produce its first product – heavy rare
earth oxides of dysprosium, gadolinium and
erbium to 99.99% purity.
The three heavy rare earths are to be recovered
from loaded ion exchange resins located
in the circuit since plant operations were
suspended in the early 1990s. Since the acquisition
of the plant in May 2011, Stans has
undertaken an extensive refurbishment program
at plant number 3. Although this plant
had not operated for nearly 20 years, much
of the production equipment has remained in
place and is ready to be restarted.
Stans Energy’s president and CEO Robert
Mackay says, “We are extremely pleased with
the progress made at plant number 3.
Through the course of our renovation, and in
consultation with our technical advisors at
VNIIHT (The Russian Resear ch Institute of
Chemical Technology), we discovered the potential
for r ecovering nearly two tonnes of
Stans ready for rare earth tests at Kashka
Stans Energy Corp has a number of rare earths and uranium properties in the Kyrgyz Republic.
mixed rare earths oxides fr om concentrate
that remains in the holding tanks.
“The concentrate consists of dyspr osium,
gadolinium, samarium, yttrium, holmium, ytterbium,
erbium, thulium and lutetium. This
test run will demonstrate the operational viability
of the Kashka plant. This validation of
our proven metallurgical processes and pro-
Central Asia
duction assets will solidify our position as one
of the front-runners to rare earth oxide production
outside of China.
“In this period of transition from project development
through infrastructure build-out,
and ultimately production readiness, Stans
will continue the evaluation of other potential
sources of concentrates.”
July/August 2012 | ASIA Miner | 39