ALKANE Resources continues to pursue the $1 billion it needs to launch the Dubbo Zirconia Project (DZP) but knows that getting a commitment from financiers will only come when "key approvals are in place".
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Managing director Ian Chalmers has expressed hope that the Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) will be able to make a "final determination" within two or three months.
Last month PAC completed its review of the state-approved DZP and decreed it could be approved subject to conditions.
It is now waiting to examine the final assessment of the project by the Department of Planning and Environment.
A mining lease from the Department of Resources and Energy, and an environmental protection licence from the Environment Protection Authority, would also be required by Alkane Resources should the Toongi-based DZP get the thumbs up.
Mr Chalmers said the company would have liked the approvals process finalised earlier in order to "get all the financing in place".
"Before we can physically start anything on the ground we actually have to put all that financing in place," he said.
Alkane Resources has been in talks with financiers for a couple of years.
"There are a number of potential sources for that money, and we just have to get those down in commercial agreements," the managing director said.
Securing the cash was not a case of a quick handshake across a desk.
"What happens is the financiers, be they banks or government agencies or whatever, do detailed due diligence," Mr Chalmers said.
"They come in and look at all engineering data, all the chemistry data. They have a very close look at this and it takes time."
Mr Chalmers said acquiring the $1 billion could take 12 months to finalise but a staged approach to accessing finance could get the building of key infrastructure under way.
The company is keen to make a start on Obley Road, getting power and water to the DZP site, and erecting offices there.
"When the main financing came into play we could move fairly fast if we had all these other thing done," Mr Chalmers said.
Alkane Resources is looking at spending about $30 million on Obley Road.
"It's probably a six-month exercise to get that road up to scratch," Mr Chalmers said. "It would be great to be in a position to do that in the first quarter of next year."
The investment in the road and other services is meagre compared to the whopping $750 million cost of building the project's processing plant.
"We still think it's feasible for us to put it all together," Mr Chalmers said.
The DZP aims to tap into one of the world's largest in-ground resources of rare metals and rare earths.
It would seek to process one million tonnes of ore every year for 70 years or more.
Alkane Resources reports that the DZP will produce a strategic and alternative supply of zirconium (hafnium), niobium (tantalum), yttrium and rare earth elements to the global market.
A demonstration pilot plant in Sydney has allowed the company to prove the DZP's technical and financial viability and resulted in the development of a working flow sheet and verified resource extraction and processing methods.
