Polymetal recently announced that the Tomtor niobium and rare earth metal deposits in the Far East may become one of the world’s three largest rare earth deposits. The company holds a small number of shares in the project.
Tomtor is the main project that Russia plans to expand the production of rare earth metals. Rare earths are used in the defense industry and the production of mobile phones and electric vehicles.
“Thomtor’s scale and grade confirm that the mine is one of the largest niobium and rare earth deposits in the world,” Polymetals CEO Vitaly Nesis said in the announcement.
Polymetal is a large gold and silver producer, holding a 9.1% stake in ThreeArc Mining Ltd, which developed the project. Vitali’s brother, Russian businessman Alexander Nesis, holds a majority stake in the project and the polymetal company.
Three Arcs has now begun to prepare the financing feasibility study of the project, although it is difficult to obtain certain permits from the Russian government, and the design is still facing challenges due to the delay of the epidemic, Polymetal said.
Affected by the epidemic, the Tomtor project has been delayed for 6 to 9 months, the silver mining company said in January. It was previously expected that the project will be put into operation in 2025, with an annual output of 160,000 tons of ore.
Preliminary estimates indicate that the reserves of Tomtor that meet the requirements of the Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) are 700,000 tons of niobium oxide and 1.7 million tons of rare earth oxides.
Australia’s Mount Weld (MT Weld) and Greenland’s Kvanefjeld (Kvanefjeld) are the other two largest rare earth deposits.