REG - Rainbow Rare Earths - Rare Earth Oxide separation commences in the U.S.

Rainbow Rare EarthsAnnouncement

11/01/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 3176Z  Rainbow Rare Earths Limited  11 January 2024

 

 

11 January 2024

Rainbow Rare Earths Limited

("Rainbow" or "the Company")

LSE: RBW

 

Rare Earth Oxide separation work commences at the back-end pilot plant in
Florida, U.S.

·    Phalaborwa pilot plant programme generating positive results in both
South Africa and the U.S.

·    Rare earth oxide separation work is underway in Lakeland, Florida,
and achieving initial results as anticipated

·    Continuous run of the front-end pilot plant in Johannesburg to
commence next week

·    Iterative Phalaborwa pilot plant operation continues to deliver
ongoing optimisation of the process flowsheet

NEWS RELEASE

Rainbow Rare Earths is pleased to announce the progression of the Phalaborwa
pilot plant process, with the rare earth oxide separation process now underway
at the facilities of Rainbow's technical partner K-Technologies, Inc.
("K-Tech") in Florida.

This back-end plant process utilises continuous ion exchange ("CIX") and
continuous ion chromatography ("CIC") to produce separated rare earth oxides.
The innovative application of this established technology has been pioneered
by K-Tech in the rare earth space and replaces traditional solvent extraction
which uses toxic and flammable solvents and diluents and requires more than
100 separate stages. The process will produce all four of the critical rare
earths used within permanent magnets, being neodymium and praseodymium
(together "NdPr"), dysprosium ("Dy") and terbium ("Tb").  A video of
Rainbow's CIX / CIC test runs underway at K-Tech's facilities can be viewed at
https://www.rainbowrareearths.com/news-media/media/
(https://www.rainbowrareearths.com/news-media/media/) .

Bench scale testwork carried out by K-Tech is already showing positive rare
earth oxide separation in line with expectations.  The continuous run of the
CIX / CIC pilot plant has also now commenced. The first separated oxides to be
delivered will be the NdPr, expected within the coming weeks, while the Dy and
Tb will follow thereafter due to their presence in smaller volumes within the
rare earth basket.

The front-end pilot plant, which is situated at the Johannesburg facilities of
the Council for Mineral Technology ("Mintek"), a global leader in mineral
processing, extractive metallurgy, and related fields, has successfully
completed the first two of three planned campaigns, from which ca. 5.75 kg of
mixed rare earth carbonate have been shipped to K-Tech in five batches to
date.

The front-end will start running on a continuous basis from the week
commencing 15 January 2024. This integrated, whole-circuit campaign will
produce increasing volumes of mixed rare earth carbonate to ship to K-Tech
over the course of Q1 2024.

The pilot plant process is an iterative process that allows for continual
optimisation in order to deliver the most efficient final flowsheet for
commercial scale operations. As part of this process, Rainbow has worked with
its partner K-Tech to establish the optimal mixed rare earth product for the
back-end CIX / CIC system. Having first successfully produced a mixed rare
earth sulphate, it was decided to further beneficiate the product, removing
certain unwanted elements, with the optimal end product for separation agreed
as a cerium-depleted mixed rare earth carbonate, providing a higher-grade
feedstock to the back-end separation circuit.

The inclusion of this extra processing step into the front-end process does
not add any significant capital or operating expenditure to the front-end
flowsheet, but reduces the quantity of mixed rare earths to be processed in
the CIX / CIC circuit by approximately 40%, with resultant capital and
operating cost benefits.

In addition, the piloting process has delivered further optimisation results
to date including:

·    improvement in the impurity and rare earths leach temperature
conditions from the 40⁰C set out in the Preliminary Economic Assessment to
30⁰C, delivering a significant ca. 50% saving in energy requirements with
resultant expected capex and opex savings; and

·    the successful regeneration of two key reagents in the leach
solution.

The four rare earths that will be produced at Phalaborwa - NdPr, Dy and Tb -
are all designated as critical minerals further to their important role in the
transition to the green economy. As vital components of permanent magnets,
these rare earth elements are used within electric vehicles and wind turbines,
as well as many other advanced technologies including those required for
strategic defence purposes, such as guided missiles, drones, electronic
displays, sonar and jet fighter engines.

George Bennett, CEO of Rainbow, commented: "Whilst we have experienced some
delays from the original timetable due firstly to the further beneficiation of
the mixed rare earth sulphate to produce a cerium-depleted mixed rare earth
carbonate as the optimal feedstock for the K-Tech CIX and CIC circuits, plus
two key mechanical issues at K-Tech, which took longer to resolve than
anticipated due to the Christmas period, this has in no way affected the
integrity of the process flowsheet which is progressing as planned. During
this time, we have continued with front-end plant optimisation work in order
to deliver the most efficient final flowsheet for commercial operations, as
well as ongoing shipments of mixed rare earth carbonate to K-Tech. We look
forward to providing updates on the pilot plant milestones during Q1 2024."

Tom Baroody, President and CEO of K-Tech, commented: "We are delighted to have
commenced operations, and separation of the Phalaborwa material is progressing
as planned. The delivery of all four separated rare earth oxides, neodymium,
praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, on U.S. soil will be a major milestone
in the development of an independent and ethical supply chain of critical rare
earths for the West and we are very excited about the role our technology can
play in making this happen."

 

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

 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  (#_ftnref1) Net present value using a 10% forward discount rate

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