Focus: Mine waste finds new life as source of rare earths

Rainbow Rare Earths

04/04/2023 11:00

By Eric Onstad
       LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Sweden, South Africa and
Australia are at the forefront of a push to transform piles of
mine waste and by-products into rare earths vital for the green
energy revolution, hoping to substantially cut dependence on
Chinese supply. 
    Prices of the minerals used in products from electric cars
to wind turbines have been strong, and a rush to meet net-zero
carbon targets is expected to further boost demand. 
    Europe and the U.S. are scrambling to wean themselves off
rare earths from China, which account for 90% of global refined
output. 
    Six advanced projects outside China, including one operated
by Swedish iron ore miner LKAB, are now being developed to
extract the materials from mining debris or by-products.
    Australia's RMIT University estimates there are 16.2 million
tonnes of unexploited rare earths in 325 mineral sands deposits
worldwide, while the U.S. Idaho National Laboratory said 100,000
tonnes of rare earths each year end up in waste from producing
phosphoric acid alone.
    The six projects, processing material from mineral sands,
fertiliser and iron ore operations, are targeting output of over
10,000 tonnes of key elements neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr)
oxide by 2027, analysis by Reuters and consultants Adamas
Intelligence showed. 
    That, Adamas says, is equivalent to some 8% of expected
demand for the two rare earths, vital for making permanent
magnets to power EV and wind turbine motors.
    Potentially they will cut the expected deficit in the
materials by upwards of 50%, data from Adamas and the Reuters
analysis showed.
    "These projects are the low-hanging fruit in the supply
chain at the moment," said Ryan Castilloux, managing director at
Adamas. 
    "There's more demand growth coming in the near to medium
term than production, so there's an opportunity for these
readily accessible sources of supply." 
   
 
    
    QUICKER THAN NEW MINES 
    Recovering rare earths from waste is much quicker than
setting up new projects from scratch. A new mine that
state-owned LKAB is planning to develop at Europe's largest
known deposit of rare earth oxides could take up to 15 years to
launch. 
    In contrast, its project to isolate rare earths from
byproducts from two existing iron ore mines in northern Sweden
is due to kick off in four.
    Material from an initial stage of iron ore processing, which
is currently deposited in a tailings dam, will be retained and
go through further treatment stages.
    "We want to make sure we extract as much value as possible,
and when we come to the critical minerals, we have those in our
ores already," said David Hognelid, LKAB's chief strategy
officer for special products.
    The company will extract phosphorus for fertiliser, fluorine
and gypsum in addition to rare earths.
    In South Africa, Rainbow Minerals  RBWR.L  is also planning
to process stacks of waste from years of phosphate mining.
    But the biggest such project is in Australia, where mineral
sands producer Iluka  ILU.AX  is gearing up to process 1 million
tonnes of stockpiled by-products that have been building up at
its Eneabba site since the 1990s.
    It is building a rare earths refinery due to open in 2025
that together with related infrastructure is expected to cost
between A$1 billion ($677.1 million) and A$1.2 billion, helped
by a government loan.

    NEW TECHNOLOGY
    A key element to making new projects viable is technology
developed to separate the rare earths.
    Rainbow Minerals will use a new process developed by U.S.
company K-Technologies based on ion chromatography, which is
common in the pharmaceutical industry and other sectors.
    LKAB will be sending its material for separation to Norway's
REEtec, in which it is the biggest shareholder.
    Commodity trader Mercuria also bought a stake in REEtec for
a new division that targets metals needed for the energy
transition.
    "REEtec fits the narrative of building processing capacity
for rare earths in the part of the supply chain where we think
there's a bottleneck," said Guillaume de Dardel, head of energy
transition metals at Mercuria.
    "The company's technology has a lower environmental
footprint compared to the legacy solvent extraction process
essentially used for rare earths separation in China."
    In the U.S., Phoenix Tailings, funded mainly by venture
capital funds, is using new technology developed by scientists
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 
    "There's zero waste, zero emissions and we're also doing it
competitive with Chinese prices. We're not going to rely on
government to fund us," said Chief Executive Nick Myers. 
    Prices of rare earths have climbed in recent years, making
new projects more viable. Those of NdPr alloy in China
 SMM-REM-PNA , while down from a peak seen last year, have
nearly doubled over the past three years.
    ($1 = 1.4769 Australian dollars)

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FACTBOX-Projects transforming waste to rare earths   
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N35S4VY
Rare Earth Deficits Seen on Demand for Green Transition    https://tmsnrt.rs/3JIh7Cj
Rare Earth Output to Jump from Discarded Mine Waste     https://tmsnrt.rs/3LZ2rS9
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 (Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Veronica Brown and Jan
Harvey)
 ((eric.onstad@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 7093; Twitter https://twitter.com/reutersEricO;
 Reuters Messaging: eric.onstad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))