Replies to post #68242 on Sunergy, Inc. (fka SNEY)

[falon]

Hunter,

If I may venture a guess I would think minimum 6-12 months depending on the end users needs or desires for the final product to be delivered. It would be nice to see it in half that time however depending on how sophisticated the pilot plant is the process and could take twice that time.

Even before SNEY mentioned the pilot plant they were already talking about off-take agreements so they may already have interested parties lined up.

Listed below are some examples of other junior miners pilot plants:

Here are examples of what other Jr. Mining companies are doing with pilot plants.

They sound fascinatingly similar to what SNEY is trying to accomplish. It is a sign of the times.

Matamec Pilot Plant Operations Commence

http://www.matamec.com/vns-site/pressdetail-2012_06_04_matamec_pilot_plant_operations_commence-en.html

Montreal, June 4, 2011 - Matamec Explorations Inc. ("Matamec" or the“Company” - TSX-V: MAT) is pleased to announce that the mineral processing pilot plant operations for its flagship Kipawa rare earth project have commenced.

Press Release Highlights:

• Pilot plant operations have commenced in an independent laboratory to validate previous test results, but in a continuous manner and on a larger scale;
• The product of the pilot plant, the concentrate, will be used for the second pilot work scheduled to commence in early Q3 2012.

The mineral processing pilot plant was successfully commissioned last week at SGS Minerals Services. The plant consists of crushing and grinding circuits, followed by 2 stages of magnetic separation. The two main goals of the pilot plant are to validate the process on a larger scale and to generate sufficient feed for downstream hydrometallurgical work.

In the course of the next 3 weeks, 15 tonnes of ore will be treated continuously to produce approximately 5 tonnes of mineral concentrate. This mineral concentrate will be fed into the hydrometallurgical pilot plant to generate a mixed rare earth concentrate final product. The hydrometallurgical pilot work is scheduled to commence in early Q3 2012.

“The processing of rare earth ore is the biggest obstacle when developing a rare earth project.” says André Gauthier, the president of Matamec, “Matamec and the SGS technical team have worked diligently for more than 2 years to develop a new process that is both simple and low cost. We are extremely pleased to successfully progress into the pilot plant phase in the development of Kipawa. Now with the added expertise provided by Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC) network, Matamec is geared to fast-track the Kipawa rare earth project to production.”

Bertho Caron, V-P Project Development & Construction (Eng.) and Eliza Ngai, Metallurgist (P.Eng) are Matamec’s Qualified Person for this press release.

About Matamec

Matamec Explorations Inc is a junior mining exploration company whose main focus is in developing the Kipawa deposit and exploring more than 35km of strike length in the Kipawa Alkalic Complex for rare earths-yttrium-zirconium-niobium-tantalum mineralization on its Zeus property.

The company is also exploring for gold, base metals and platinum group metals. Its gold portfolio includes the Matheson JV property located along strike and in close proximity to the Hoyle Pond Mine in the prolific mining camp of Timmins, Ontario.

In Quebec, the Company is exploring for lithium and tantalum on its Tansim property and for precious and base metals on its Sakami, Valmont and Vulcain properties. As well, it is exploring for gold together with Northern Superior Resources Inc. on the Lesperance/Wachigabau property.


Another Jr. doing the Pilot Plant marketing just like SNEY and others:

http://www.rareelementresources.com/s/Home.asp


Activities in 2012 will include the Plan of Operation for mine permitting, marketing of concentrate from the pilot plant, testing for REO separation, additional drilling for rare-earth resource expansion and upgrading, metallurgical optimization studies, commencement of a bankable feasibility study for completion in 2Q2013 and completion of mine permitting for 2014.
Alkane Resources Among the Top Tier of Heavy Rare Earth Producers Anticipated by 2014

http://www.raremetalblog.com/2012/06/alkane-resources-among-the-top-tier-of-heavy-rare-earth-producers-anticipated-by-2014-.html

Alkane Resources Ltd.’s (ASX: ALK) Dubbo Zirconia Project (DZP) has been 14 years in the making. Already, in the last 4 years -- Alkane has demonstrated the ability at pilot scale to produce commercially viable rare earth products. This achievement is the ultimate precursor to commercialization and with an anticipated annual production of about 4,000 tonnes of rare earth concentrate of which 25% will be heavy rare earth element (HREE) concentrate, Alkane ranks among the top tier of HREE producers anticipated to come on stream in 2014.

Alkane Resources has been working with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO) since 2006 and in 2007 a separation pilot plant was built to improve their existing flowsheet. The pilot plant has been operating since May 2008. Ian Chalmers, Managing Director of Alkane says, “I can’t stress enough the importance of operating the demonstration pilot plant at ANSTO, and now in our 4th year, we continue to make improvements to the flowsheet and our products. The DZP is a very advanced, very long life, polymetallic project in a very favourable location with the right mix of strategic metals.” Ian also reiterates that Alkane is making significant progress towards becoming a strategic supplier of heavy rare earth elements outside of China.

DZP Demonstration Pilot Plant at ANSTOIn recent days Alkane’s wholly owned DZP has been the focus of various news releases and updates. This morning, Alkane’s official news release titled, Drill Results Point to Possible Resource Expansion For Dubbo Zirconia Project, notes “Reverse circulation drilling of the Railway prospect within the Dubbo Zirconia Project (DZP) has identified extensive zirconium, niobium, yttrium and rare earth mineralisation…rare earth distribution at Railway is about 30% heavy rare earths and 70% light rare earths, slightly higher than Toongi which has a 25% / 75% distribution…additional potential from Railway could add to the already long life Toongi resource/reserve base.” At this stage the drilling is not sufficient to define a resource but an exploration target of approximately 40 million tonnes has been identified.

On Monday, June 18, 2012, a Company Insight – Progress After Capital Raising, provided additional details about the DZP, describing that the current focus of the project is two-fold, addressing the preparation of the environmental impact statement and advancing the feasibility study to revamp capital and operating costs. This will ultimately lead to the finalization of off-take agreements resulting in a solid revenue streams for Alkane.

Here are some additional points that highlight why Alkane is a company to watch:

The DZP is based upon one of the world’s largest in-ground resources of the metals zirconium, hafnium, niobium, tantalum, yttrium and rare earth elements; located 20 kilometres south of the large regional centre of Dubbo, about 400 kilometres northwest of Sydney in the Central West Region of New South Wales.

It is anticipated that all approvals, financing and off-take agreements for DZP will be in place by June 2013 with production anticipated by 2014. Alkane also anticipates that their gold project will be producing by Q3 2013. Both projects will create effective revenue streams for the company.

There are 4 off take agreements in place for products generated from the DZP. Three are for zirconium products and one is for niobium products. Alkane is also working toward signing a strategic partnership agreement for the rare earth output from the DZP by the end of July 2012.

A Definitive Feasibility Study for the DZP completed in 2011 references a 1 million tonne per annum throughput that will yield about 15,700 tonnes per annum of zirconium that will be further processed into other saleable products; 3,005 tonnes per annum of niobium; 3,050 tonnes per annum of light rare earth element (LREE) concentrate; and 1,120 tonnes per annum of heavy rare earth (HREE) concentrate.

On a personal note, I contacted Ian after a pile of emails on a colleague’s interview on what companies he thinks will be coming on stream in the next year and a half. I immediately noted that this individual missed Alkane…

Disclaimer: Alkane Resources Ltd. is a RareMetalBlog sponsor.

Karima said...

Here are a few more points about Alkane's 4 off take agreements from their May 2012 Annual General Meeting Presentation:

- Zirconium (39% of revenue) – 100% under MOU
- Niobium (22% of revenue) – 100% under MOU
- LREE (21% of revenue) – advanced negotiations
- YHREE (18% of revenue) – advanced negotiations
- Throughput – there are four MOU’s which virtually guarantee production at 1Mtpa
- Revenue update in progress, which will see shift in % distribution


Avalon Provides Nechalacho Project Update

http://avalonraremetals.mwnewsroom.com/article?id=1585911

METALLURGICAL STUDIES Metallurgical studies are ongoing to define the most efficient process for recovery of the rare earth elements. As disclosed in the Company's news release dated March 26, 2012, a full scale flotation pilot plant trial on a 40 tonne sample of mineralized material from the Basal Zone was completed in February 2012, which successfully produced six tonnes of concentrate for use in the hydrometallurgical pilot plant. Further optimization of the flotation plant design parameters is planned, and a follow-up flotation pilot plant trial on a two to three tonne ore sample is now scheduled for August 2012. Planning for the hydrometallurgical process pilot plant is nearing completion. The hydrometallurgical process consists of two stages. The first stage is a sulphuric acid bake which liberates most of the light rare earths and 50% of the heavy rare earths. Bench scale testwork on this process is complete. The sulphuric acid bake is followed by a second stage, cracking process that liberates the balance of the heavy rare earths and the by-products zirconium, niobium and tantalum. Bench scale testwork on the cracking process is on-going. The pilot plant for the sulphuric acid bake process is scheduled for August 2012 once the evaluation of various equipment alternatives is completed. Recent research work on an alternative to the "caustic" cracking process tested to date has identified a potentially more efficient cracking method and laboratory testwork to assess this alternative is underway. Once a decision is made on which is the best alternative, a pilot plant trial will be conducted. This pilot plant trial is not expected to begin until later in 2012 and as a result, the final design criteria for the cracking facility are not expected to be available until early 2013. This extends the target date for the completion of the Feasibility Study to the second quarter of calendar 2013. The scope and timing of any testwork required for the separation plant process has yet to be determined and at this time it is assumed that it will run in parallel with the work on the cracking process. The Company currently has $48 million in cash resources, which is sufficient to complete the Feasibility Study and cover overhead expenses.




Background on Pilot Plants

A pilot plant is a small chemical processing system which is operated to generate information about the behavior of the system for use in design of larger facilities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_plant

Pilot plants are used to reduce the risk associated with construction of large process plants. They do this in two ways:

They are substantially less expensive to build than full-scale plants. The business does not put as much capital at risk on a project that may be inefficient or unfeasible. Further, design changes can be made more cheaply at the pilot scale and kinks in the process can be worked out before the large plant is constructed.
They provide valuable data for design of the full-scale plant. Scientific data about reactions, material properties, corrosiveness, for instance, may be available, but it is difficult to predict the behavior of a process of any complexity. Engineering data from other process may be available, but this data can not always be clearly applied to the process of interest. Designers use data from the pilot plant to refine their design of the production scale facility.

If a system is well defined and the engineering parameters are known, pilot plants are not used. For instance, a business that wants to expand production capacity by building a new plant that does the same thing as an existing plant may choose to not use a pilot plant.

Additionally, advances in process simulation on computers have increased the confidence of process designers and reduced the need for pilot plants. However, they are still used as even state-of-the-art simulation cannot accurately predict the behavior of complex systems.

Pilot plant is a relative term in the sense that plants are typically smaller than full-scale production plants, but are built in a range of sizes. Some pilot plants are built in laboratories using stock lab equipment. Others are constructed of fabricated metal on dedicated concrete slabs and cost millions of dollars.

After data is collected from operation of a pilot plant, a larger production scale facility may be built. Alternatively, a demonstration plant, which is bigger than a pilot plant, but smaller than the full-scale production plant, may be built to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the process. Businesses sometimes continue to operate the pilot plant in order to test ideas for new products, new feedstocks, or different operating conditions. Alternatively, they may be operated as production facilities, augmenting production from the main plant.


http://www.hazenusa.com/rare-earth-elements.php

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=rare%20earth%20enea&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CE4QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.federchimica.it%2FLibraries%2F6%25C2%25B0_WS_TACEC%2FGiuseppe_Devincenzis.sflb.ashx&ei=5bb1T-iTJKm62wWCupnEBg&usg=AFQjCNEtupZRDYldj5JjAb_RzU6mhYqdcQ&cad=rja

http://www.sgs.com/~/media/Global/Documents/Flyers%20and%20Leaflets/SGS-MIN-WA019-Pilot-Plant-Testing-EN-11.pdf

http://cpt.eriez.com/Products/minipilotplantmpp/

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/348605/20120604/rare-earths-quebec-hybrid-cars-manufacturing-toyota.htm

http://www.innovationmetals.com/rare-earth-producers/

http://www.outotec.com/files/Technology/Documents/Physical%20Separation/Technical%20Papers/TESTINGGRAVITY.pdf

http://www.bioenergy.org.nz/documents/liquidbiofuels/Pilot_Plant_for_Biodiesel-leaflet1.pdf

http://saharaforestproject.com/sfp_qatar_folder.pdf

[risk on]

An SNEY announcement of off take agreement could literally come at any time. The Question is, will that off take agreement be for the raw black sand concentrates directly from dredging, or will the off take be for the highly refined post raw REE CONCENTRATE product. As those sands are exponentially more valuable, and SNEY has the expertise ( BECKMANN) and aid of Hazens facilities, I think the answer is rather obvious.

WHY LET ANOTHER CO MAKE EXPONENTIALLY MORE BEING A MIDDLE MAN?
WHY NOT REFINE THE SANDS TO THE MOST ECONOMICAL EQUILIBRIUM POINT?

I think these last two Questions are rhetorical.

And SNEY KNOWS THE ANSWER. Now, do we have the GRIT, pardon the expression, to wait while BECKMANN AND HAZEN get to a point that make Sney's REE CONCENTRATE product exponentially more valuable?