The Vara Mada project, previously known as the Toliara mineral sands project, is located in Toliara, Madagascar. It is being developed by Energy Fuels, a US-based critical materials company.
A feasibility study for the open-cut mine was published in December 2025, while an updated feasibility study was announced in January 2026, along with the renaming of the project to Vara Mada.
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The project is being developed in two stages and is expected to have a life of mine of 38 years for an investment of $769m for stage one and $142m for stage two developments. It is expected to produce 959,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of ilmenite, 66,000tpa of zircon, 8,000tpa of rutile and 24,000tpa of monazite.
Development of the Vara Mada project is contingent on securing a favourable final investment decision, anticipated in 2027, obtaining the necessary regulatory consents and permits, and reaching a definitive agreement with the Government of Madagascar on fiscal terms.
Energy Fuels intends to import monazite concentrates from Vara Mada for processing at its 100%-owned White Mesa Mill in Utah, US, producing high-purity separated light and heavy rare earth element oxides for commercial and government customers across the US and allied nations.
Vara Mada project location and background
The Vara Mada mine is located approximately 45km north of Toliara and 640km south-west of Antananarivo, Madagascar. The site lies within the mining lease PDE 37242, which covers an area of approximately 125km².
The project was originally developed by Base Resources. The company completed a pre-feasibility study for the project in March 2019.
The Government of Madagascar placed the project on suspension in November 2019 to renegotiate fiscal and other terms.
Subsequently, a definitive feasibility study (DFS) for the project was completed in December 2019 and the results of an updated DFS were unveiled in September 2021.
In April 2024, Energy Fuels executed a definitive scheme implementation deed to acquire Base Resources, which was completed in October of the same year. Energy Fuels owns the project through its wholly owned subsidiary, Base Toliara.
In December 2024, the Madagascar Council of Ministers lifted the suspension of the project, allowing Energy Fuels to continue developing the project.
Geology and mineralisation
The Vara Mada project is underpinned by the Ranobe deposit, which comprises five mineralised units. The upper sand unit is a fine-grained, unconsolidated aeolian sand containing slime or clay and heavy minerals (HM). The HM comprise ilmenite as the major mineral and zircon and rutile as secondary minerals.
The intermediate clay sand unit has high slime content with approximately 3% of HM. The lower sand unit contains medium-grained quartz sand and variable mineralisation with moderately low slime content.
Mineral reserves
The proven and probable mineral reserves at the Vara Mada mineral sands project were estimated at 904 million tonnes (mt) grading 73% ilmenite, 1% rutile, 1.0% leucoxene, 5.9% zircon and 1.9% monazite as of January 2026.
Mining methods at Vara Mada
The Vara Mada project will be an open-cut mining operation utilising a conventional dozer-fed dry mining unit (DMU) with in-pit tailings deposition.
In stage one of the mine plan, rectangular mining blocks measuring 200m (656ft) × 100m were sequenced to represent the maximum material per DMU location. The block dimensions reflect an assumed maximum dozer push of 100m at a 33-degree slope.
Stage one mining operation includes the installation of the first dozer mining unit (DMU1), alongside the first wet concentrator plant (WCP1). DMU1 is expected to run at a feed rate of 1,750 tonnes per hour (tph), corresponding to 12.6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) mined.
For stage two mine scheduling through to the end of the mine life, the mine plan will adopt larger mining blocks, typically 400m × 200m.
Stage two will add a second dozer mining unit (DMU2) and a second wet concentrator plant, with work due to start 4.25 years after stage one begins. The new units are planned to mirror the design of DMU1 and WCP1, and once commissioned, they will lift overall mining capacity to 3,500tph, or 25mtpa.
Mineral processing
Ore treatment is planned as a three-step process. The WCP will receive run-of-mine (RoM) slurry from the DMU and route it across a 3mm screen to remove oversize material.
Ultra-fine slimes of -53 microns will then be removed in a cyclone cluster ahead of gravity separation. The conditioned stream will be fed to a three-stage spiral circuit, which upgrades the RoM material to produce heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) for onward feed to the mineral separation plant (MSP).
Within the MSP, the feed preparation area receives HMC from the WCP HMC pumping system and will further upgrade it through the removal of most of the remaining light HM material.
In the MSP’s initial dry circuit, the plant will use a series of magnetic and electrostatic separation stages to recover ilmenite, with a portion of leucoxene captured within the ilmenite stream. The remaining non-magnetic material will be improved via wet gravity separation and then treated through further magnetic and electrostatic circuits to produce rutile and zircon, with residual leucoxene reporting to the rutile product.
Ilmenite non-conductor reject material will be transferred to the monazite concentrator plant (MCP), which is designed to accommodate both the initial plant throughput and the planned stage two expansion of the MSP.
The MCP treats MSP rejects containing approximately 20% monazite and upgrades them to a 90% monazite product. Nameplate output is up to 20,000tpa of monazite product in stage one, increasing to up to 29,000tpa in stage two.
Vara Mada site infrastructure
Access to the project is provided by the National Route 9, which runs within 15km of the mine site. From RN9, minor unsealed tracks lead to the location.
A new 45km-long access road, including a 630m-long concrete bridge over the Fiherenana river, will be built as part of the project.
The power supply needs of the project will be met from a hybrid power plant. To be built near the MSP, the plant will feature solar modules, reciprocating engines and a battery storage system. The installed power will be 27.2MW during stage one operations and 38.8MW during stage two.
Bulk water for the project will be sourced from a network of bore fields located along the eastern boundary of the mining lease. The Northern, Central, Eastern and Southern bore fields are distributed over an approximate distance of 18km.
An export facility is also being constructed at Batterie Beach, which will comprise two large bulk product storage sheds and a dedicated containerised monazite storage yard. Zircon will be stored separately to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination.
During stage one, it will handle ship loading for ilmenite, rutile and zircon at a rate of 14–17 vessels per year, rising to 20–26 vessels per year at peak stage two output. Monazite will be shipped in consignments of 200 containers, around six to seven times annually.
Contractors involved
DMU1 and DMU2 will both be purpose-built by Piacentini & Son, an Australia-based mining contractor with experience in designing and constructing dozer traps.
A joint venture between Mineral Technologies and Lycopodium was contracted to provide engineering, procurement and construction management services for the front-end engineering design (FEED) and early works programme.
PRDW, a consulting engineering group, was awarded the contract to provide technical support for the FEED work of the export facility.
Local construction company Colas Madagascar was selected to conduct river hydrology, geotechnical investigations and preliminary design for the proposed bridge over the Fiherenana River.
Fugro and Subtech were engaged to conduct marine geotechnical investigations and seismic surveys for the project.
Australian law company Johnson, Winter & Slattery, and African engineering consultant Zutari were contracted to provide support during the power tender evaluation and power purchase agreement negotiations.
Other contractors involved in the project are Professional Cost Consultants, Wave International and Knight Piesold.
The 2025 feasibility study for the project was completed with inputs from several companies including ERM and Nomad Consulting, IHC Mining, Lycopodium, Mineral Technologies and Zutari, along with PRDW and John W Ffooks & Co.
