{"id":231083,"date":"2025-10-21T23:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T23:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/231083\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T23:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T23:44:10","slug":"donald-rare-earth-mine-given-major-project-status-by-australian-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/231083\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald rare earth mine given major project status by Australian government"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian government has granted major project status to Astron Corporation’s Donald Rare Earth and Mineral Sands project in regional western Victoria, recognising its national significance.<\/p>\n

Once operational, the site is expected to become the fourth-largest rare earth mine in the world outside China.<\/p>\n

The mine is a joint venture between Hong Kong-based Astron Corporation and United States uranium giant Energy Fuels, which is providing $183 million in funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The mine will be located near the small Wimmera town of Minyip, which has a population of about 500 people.<\/p>\n

The Victorian government has already given its final approval of the mine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under the new status, Astron will receive government-backed facilitation when dealing with agencies such as the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.<\/p>\n

Mine yields to be exported<\/p>\n

Rare earth minerals extracted from the site will be used in modern technologies such as wind turbines and electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

Zirconium and titanium are used in medical equipment and household products such as paint.<\/p>\n

Trace amounts of uranium will also be mined on site and exported to the United States.<\/p>\n

It will be the first time Victoria will source saleable uranium, despite the state’s ban on uranium mining.<\/p>\n

About 7,000 tonnes of heavy mineral and rare earths will be shipped to Energy Fuels’ Utah facility each year.<\/p>\n

Loading…What the project status means<\/p>\n

The major project status is a federal endorsement managed by the federal government’s Major Projects Facilitation Agency (MPFA).<\/p>\n

It is not a funding grant.<\/p>\n

It gives the major project a federal contact point to make regulatory processes easier and faster.<\/p>\n

It could speed up processes regarding environmental, biosecurity and foreign investment approvals.<\/p>\n

According to the MPFA, the major project status title is reserved for projects investing $50 million or more which are strategically significant to Australia, face complex regulatory approvals and demonstrate commercial value.<\/p>\n

\"Donald<\/p>\n

Astron Corporation has approval to mine 2,700 hectares of land in western Victoria. (Supplied: Astron Corporation)<\/p>\n

Community division<\/p>\n

Astron managing director Tiger Brown said the recognition would streamline engagement with federal agencies.<\/p>\n

Astron Corporation plans to secure full financing to begin early site works in 2026.<\/p>\n

“With major approvals in place, we are progressing toward a final investment decision, expected later this year,” Mr Brown said.<\/p>\n

Locally, the mine has been a contentious topic for years.<\/p>\n

Farmers facing the loss of their land have tirelessly fought against the project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, land holders opposing the mine told the ABC they were concerned about losing their prime agricultural land.<\/p>\n

Supportive residents told the ABC the project was a chance to revitalise local industry.<\/p>\n

The federal government has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian government has granted major project status to Astron Corporation’s Donald Rare Earth and Mineral Sands project…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[139358,64,63,99,114460,10340,92252,6827,139359,64167,139360,8261,139361,27484],"class_list":{"0":"post-231083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-astron","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-farmland","13":"tag-hong-kong","14":"tag-mineral-sands","15":"tag-mining","16":"tag-minyip","17":"tag-rare-earth","18":"tag-rare-earth-mine-given-major-project-status","19":"tag-rare-earths","20":"tag-rare-earths-mining-in-victoria","21":"tag-regional-victoria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}