Lindian Resources has awarded a design and construction contract for its stage one processing plant at the Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi to South African engineering group Obsideo. The deal follows a competitive tender process and provides a clear execution path toward first production, marking a key de-risking milestone.
Obsideo will deliver full engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the plant, including crushing, grinding, gravity and magnetic separation circuits. The contract includes performance guarantees and commercial mechanisms aligned with cost, schedule and safety outcomes. Obsideo CEO Cobus Robertson confirmed the target is to deliver the plant by the end of 2026, in line with Lindian's pathway to first production of rare earths monazite concentrate.
The signing follows optimisation work on the stage one plant, which is expected to improve project economics. Design changes include simplified crushing and grinding, upgraded materials handling, early rejection of low-grade material and removal of sulphide flotation, reducing complexity without compromising concentrate quality. The optimisation also allows for substantially increased stage one concentrate production.
Operating costs have been lowered by adopting an owner-operator mining model, expected to cut mining costs by about 30 per cent. Stage one pre-production capital costs remain within 10 per cent of the feasibility estimate and inside Lindian's existing US$40 million funding envelope. Long-lead items have been procured, early works are progressing, and first production is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026.
Kangankunde, located 90 kilometres north of Blantyre, is recognised for its scale, high-grade mineralisation and absence of radioactive elements. Stage one is forecast to produce a premium 55 per cent total rare earth oxide monazite concentrate, positioning the project in the lowest quartile of the global cost curve. With a 261 million tonne resource at 2.19 per cent TREO and strategic backing from Iluka Resources, Lindian has paired strong economics with execution certainty.
