REG - Rainbow Rare Earths - Positive Initial Leaching and Mineralogy Results

Rainbow Rare EarthsAnnouncement

16/04/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 6978K  Rainbow Rare Earths Limited  16 April 2024

16 April 2024

Rainbow Rare Earths Limited

("Rainbow" or "the Company")

LSE: RBW

 

Positive Initial Leaching and Mineralogy Results at Uberaba in Brazil

·    Uberaba phosphogypsum material demonstrates good monazite liberation
results, giving indications of an economic process route to follow

·    Due to the scale of the opportunity at Uberaba, an eventual rare
earths processing operation could be larger volume than that envisaged at
Phalaborwa

NEWS RELEASE

Rainbow Rare Earths is pleased to announce the results of the mineralogy and
hydrometallurgical test work recently carried out on phosphogypsum material
from The Mosaic Company's ("Mosaic") Uberaba site in Brazil that is the
subject of a memorandum of understanding ("MOU") between Rainbow and Mosaic.

As announced on 7 September 2023, Rainbow had assayed gypsum samples from
different areas of the Mosaic stack, which were sent to SGS Laboratories in
Lakefield, Canada for testing. The assays found to have the highest grade were
those taken from the most recently deposited phosphogypsum material, which is
the by-product of ongoing phosphoric acid production by Mosaic at the Uberaba
site. This material demonstrated a grade of between 4,520 to 7,912ppm total
rare earth oxides ("TREO"), with neodymium and praseodymium (together "NdPr")
being 24.7% of the rare earths basket. The TREO grade thus being ca. 80%
higher (based on current phosphogypsum material from the phosphoric acid plant
at Uberaba) and the NdPr grade being ca. 50% higher than those at Phalaborwa.

The Uberaba phosphogypsum stack has similar characteristics to Phalaborwa
given that both stacks are based upon a hard rock carbonatite phosphate
deposit. As such, the Uberaba material is amenable to direct acid leaching,
which the testwork demonstrated can recover between 31% to 65% of the TREO.

Mineralogical evaluation of the leach residue carried out at SGS Laboratories
in Lakefield, Canada, has revealed that 50% to 71% of the rare earth oxides
are contained in monazite.

Due to mineralogy, a complementary route is being studied via
hydrometallurgical and monazite concentration test work at Mosaic's lab in
Brazil that will allow for increasing overall TREO recovery.

The phosphoric acid plant at Uberaba receives its phosphate rock feed from
long life phosphate mines which offers the opportunity to recover rare earths
from the current arisings of phosphogypsum from the phosphoric acid plant. The
stack still represents a significant rare earths resource that can be
addressed at a later date should the current arisings become the focus of the
initial study.

 

George Bennett, CEO of Rainbow, commented: "These initial mineralogy results
are very positive because they demonstrate that the Uberaba material shows
good liberation results that bode well for a potentially economic operation to
recover the rare earth elements. As anticipated, the Uberaba material has
similar characteristics to Phalaborwa and we continue to expect that a
significant portion of the process flowsheet and intellectual property
developed for Phalaborwa can be applied to rare earth extraction at Uberaba.
However, given the scale of the Uberaba project, we could expect a rare earths
processing operation there to be significantly larger than that at
Phalaborwa."

 

For further information, please contact:

 

 Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd   Company  George Bennett         +27 82 652 8526

                                    Pete Gardner
                           IR       Cathy Malins           +44 7876 796 629

                                                           cathym@rainbowrareearths.com (mailto:cathym@rainbowrareearths.com)
 Berenberg                 Broker   Matthew Armitt         +44 (0) 20 3207 7800

                                    Jennifer Lee

 Stifel                    Broker   Ashton Clanfield       +44 20 7710 7600

                                    Varun Talwar

 Tavistock Communications  PR/IR    Charles Vivian         +44 (0) 20 7920 3150

                                    Tara Vivian-Neal       rainbowrareearths@tavistock.co.uk (mailto:rainbowrareearths@tavistock.co.uk)

 

Notes to Editors:

About Rainbow:

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 permanent magnet rare earth elements
neodymium and praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium.

The Company is focused on the development of the Phalaborwa Rare Earths
Project in South Africa and the earlier stage Uberaba Project in Brazil. Both
projects entail the recovery of rare earths from phosphogypsum stacks that
occur as the by-product of phosphoric acid production, with the original
source rock for both deposits being a hardrock carbonatite. Rainbow intends to
use a proprietary separation technique developed by and in conjunction with
its partner K-Technologies, Inc., which simplifies the process of producing
separated rare earth oxides (versus traditional solvent extraction), leading
to cost and environmental benefits.

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 
(#_ftn1) , an average EBITDA operating margin of 75% and a payback period of
< two years. Pilot plant operations commenced in 2023, with the project
expected to reach commercial production in 2026, just five years after work
began on the project by Rainbow.

More information is available at www.rainbowrareearths.com
(http://www.rainbowrareearths.com/) .

 

 1  Net present value using a 10% forward discount rate

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