Vital Metals pauses construction of Saskatoon critical minerals facility

Canada’s only rare earths mining company is pausing all construction at its Saskatoon processing facility.

Vital Metals said in a news release Wednesday the pause will allow the company to conserve cash and seek other sources of funding to potentially build a sustainable business model for the facility. 

The company had planned to complete a calcine circuit that would produce an intermediate rare earths oxide product for potential sale to a third party, but it said it has been unable to secure such sales on “commercially satisfactory terms.” 

It said a review of the economic viability of mining and processing ore at North T, a deposit in the Northwest Territories, has indicated “the scale of operations and associated unit operating costs will not achieve positive cashflow from the project.”