TIDMRBW
RNS Number : 7234B
Rainbow Rare Earths Limited
06 June 2023
6 June 2023
Rainbow Rare Earths Limited
("Rainbow" or "the Company")
LSE: RBW
Phalaborwa pilot plant commences operations
Rainbow Rare Earths is pleased to announce an update with
regards to progress on the pilot plant for the Phalaborwa project
in South Africa.
Highlights
-- Pilot plant front end has commenced operations and is on
track to produce the first high-value mixed rare earth sulphate in
Q3 2023
-- Will confirm Phalaborwa's status as a near-term producer of
magnet rare earths, capable of being commercialised on a standalone
basis, materially de-risking the project
-- Pilot plant back end, to produce separated magnet rare earth
oxides, is well advanced in terms of its construction, with
commissioning due Q3 2023
-- The Company is exploring the option to permanently establish
its back-end process in the USA, which would establish it as one of
the first producers of separated rare earth oxides in the
country
As previously announced, the pilot plant is split into two
phases. Phase one comprises a front end where material from the
historic gypsum stacks at the Phalaborwa site will be consolidated
into a rare earth sulphate, containing economic quantities of the
four most important rare earth elements, which are used to make
permanent magnets, being neodymium and praseodymium ("NdPr"),
dysprosium and terbium.
The front-end process is situated at the Johannesburg facilities
of the Council for Mineral Technology ("Mintek"), a global leader
in mineral processing, extractive metallurgy, and related fields,
and commissioning of the first stage is complete, in line with
Rainbow's project development timetable and budget. A video of the
front end of the pilot plant in operation can be viewed at
https://www.rainbowrareearths.com/news-media/media/ .
The front-end process incorporates the front-end gypsum washing,
acid leach, fluoride removal via continuous ion-exchange ("CIX"),
rare earth precipitation and a sulphuric acid agitated bake
("SAAB") to produce a high-value mixed rare earth sulphate. This
will subsequently be shipped to Rainbow's rare earth separation
plant situated at K-Technologies, Inc. ("K-Tech") in Lakeland,
Florida, USA, for separation into rare earth oxides.
The front end will produce its first mixed rare earth sulphate
solids in Q3 2023, thereby confirming Phalaborwa's status as a
near-term producer of magnet rare earths. It is important to note
that most rare earth mining projects produce a mixed rare earth
mineral concentrate, a mixed rare earth sulphate, a mixed rare
earth oxide or a mixed rare earth carbonate as their end
product.
This milestone will therefore establish Phalaborwa as an
economically viable producer of mixed rare earth sulphates on a
standalone basis. Rainbow has established that there is a high
demand in favourable jurisdictions for a mixed rare earth sulphate
product ahead of the final beneficiation step that will be
undertaken using the K-Tech process.
The mixed rare earth sulphate solids produced by the pilot plant
front end at Mintek will be shipped to the USA to undergo further
downstream processing in the pilot plant back end, in order to
deliver separated magnet rare earth oxides.
Phase two of the pilot plant comprises the back end situated at
K-Tech, which will water leach the mixed rare earth sulphate into a
pregnant leach solution ("PLS"), perform a cerium rejection step to
minimise flows downstream (thereby further reducing operating costs
and capital expenditure) into the CIX circuit for loading onto the
cation resin before stripping and going into the final continuous
ion chromatography (" CIC") step, which will produce the separated
rare earth oxides using K-Tech's patented CIX/CIC technology.
The ability to produce separated rare earth oxides highlights
Rainbow's unique position within the magnet rare earth supply
chain, as it expects to be able to produce a separated rare earth
oxide product at 99.95% purity that can be sold directly to
permanent magnet manufacturing capacity currently being developed
in the USA and aligned countries.
The back end of the pilot plant is currently well advanced in
terms of its construction at K-Tech's facility in Lakeland, with
commissioning due to start in Q3 2023. Photos of the pilot plant
can be found at https://www.rainbowrareearths.com/projects/gallery/
.
Rainbow is currently exploring the option of permanently
establishing its back-end rare earth oxide separation process in
the USA and has identified a potential site for a commercial scale
plant.
George Bennett, CEO of Rainbow, commented: "Work has continued
apace on the Phalaborwa pilot plant and the production of the first
mixed rare earth sulphate is expected shortly. This will affirm
Phalaborwa as a strategic and near-term supply of the magnet rare
earths needed to power the green economy."
"The back end of the plant is also progressing well, and we are
exploring the possibility of establishing this commercial final
separation process permanently in the USA, as we see it adding huge
value to Rainbow. This would position the Company as one of the
first producers of separated rare earth oxides within the USA,
which is urgently trying to establish a domestic rare earths supply
chain, given the importance of rare earths to decarbonisation,
defence and other strategic products vital to the 21(st) century
global economy."
For further information, please contact:
Rainbow Rare Earths
Ltd Company George Bennett +27 82 652 8526
Pete Gardner
Cathy Malins
(IR) +44 7876 796 629
cathym@rainbowrareearths.com
Berenberg Broker Matthew Armitt +44 20 3207 7800
Jennifer Lee
Tavistock Communications PR/IR Charles Vivian +44 (0) 20 7920 3150
Tara Vivian-Neal rainbowrareearths@tavistock.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
Rainbow Rare Earths aims to be a forerunner in the establishment
of an independent and ethical supply chain of the rare earth
elements that are driving the green energy transition. It is doing
this successfully via the identification and development of
secondary rare earth deposits that can be brought into production
quicker and at a lower cost than traditional hard rock mining
projects, with a focus on the magnet rare earth elements neodymium
and praseodymium ("NdPr"), dysprosium and terbium.
The Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project, located in South Africa,
comprises a total Mineral Resource Estimate of 30.4 Mt at 0.44%
TREO contained within unconsolidated gypsum stacks derived from
historic phosphate hard rock mining. High value NdPr oxide
represents 29.0% of the total contained rare earth oxides, with
economic Dysprosium and Terbium oxide credits enhancing the overall
value of the rare earth basket in the stacks. Rainbow will use a
proprietary separation technique developed by its partner
K-Technologies, Inc. for the plant at Phalaborwa, which simplifies
the process of producing separated rare earth oxides (versus
traditional solvent extraction), leading to cost benefits, as well
as being more environmentally friendly.
The Phalaborwa Preliminary Economic Assessment has confirmed
strong base line economics for the project, which has a base case
NPV(10) of US$627 million [1] , an average EBITDA operating margin
of 75% and a payback period of < two years. Pilot plant
operations will commence in 2023, with the project expected to
reach commercial production in 2026, just five years after work
began on the project by Rainbow.
[1] Net present value using a 10% forward discount rate
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