Independent report confirms major rare earths potential, viable hybrid mining at Greenland Mines’ Sarfartoq

The independent report, which confirms 40 700 t of contained NdPr in the indicated and inferred mineral resource categories, was prepared by Tetra Tech Canada and GeoSim Services.

For the first time in the Sarfartoq project’s more than 15-year exploration history, it now carries a portion of its resource in the indicated mineral resource category under a Securities and Exchange Commission-recognised reporting standard. This marks a critical derisking milestone that materially advances the project’s technical and financing pathway, says Greenland Mines president Bo Møller Stensgaard.

The independent technical report also delivers, for the first time, a combined openpit and underground mineral resource estimate (MRE), unlocking mining-method flexibility that was never previously modelled at Sarfartoq.

Stensgaard says the project has long been recognised as one of the most strategically important undeveloped NdPr deposits outside of China, however, it has never before carried an indicated category resource and has also never before been assessed under a combined openpit and underground scenario for MREs.

The independent report will help inform the project’s next stage of development, with Stensgaard saying that with the project now having an indicated resource on the books for the first time, a validated hybrid mining approach, and a clear line of sight to an initial assessment, Sarfartoq can quickly move to the next stages of development.

Another independent assessment valued the Sarfartoq rare earths project at $2.05-billion with an internal rate of return of 118%.

PROJECT SIGNIFICANCE

“At 2025 consumption levels, the NdPr oxide already identified within this resource — about 40 700 t contained in the indicated and inferred categories combined — is equivalent to roughly five years of all NdPr oxide refined outside China in 2025.

Stensgaard points out that very few rare earth resources anywhere in the Western world can make that claim today.

“At Sarfartoq, we are dealing with conventional rare earth minerals already being processed at commercial scale elsewhere in the world today — not the unconventional or unproven mineralogy that constrains many other rare earth projects.

“Additionally, what’s remarkable for Sarfartoq is that this resource represents just one target on a much larger system: the ST1 zone, on which we’ve drilled and delivered today’s resource, occupies well under 1% of our 191 km2 licence, on an outer ring structure around the Sarfartoq carbonatite complex roughly 32 km long.

“Five other known occurrences — ST40, ST19, ST24, ST31 and ST43 — have already returned significant rare earth results but remain largely untested and undeveloped, alongside additional early-stage exploration targets across the complex,” Stensgaard explains.

Greenland Mines believes Sarfartoq represents the potential foundation of a major new Western rare earths district. This is a major leap up the development ladder for Sarfartoq, and it sets the stage for the next phase of the project’s advancement.