REG - Rainbow Rare Earths - Yttrium Price Surge Improves Phalaborwa Economics

Rainbow Rare EarthsAnnouncement

24/11/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 6295I  Rainbow Rare Earths Limited  24 November 2025

24 November 2025

Rainbow Rare Earths Limited

("Rainbow" or "the Company")

LSE: RBW

 

Surge in Yttrium Pricing Materially Enhances Phalaborwa Economics

 

·    European yttrium prices surged +3,000% due to market shortages
further to the April 2025 Chinese export controls

·    Inclusion of yttrium in Phalaborwa's SEG+ mixed rare earth product
could add +US$30 million to the project's annual estimated EBITDA

·    Yttrium is used in the aerospace, energy and semi-conductor
industries and is critical to certain defence applications

 

NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT

Rainbow Rare Earths notes the recent reports on the surge in pricing and
importance of yttrium, a rare earth element that will be included in the
Phalaborwa project's SEG+ product, which is a mix of all the economically
important medium and heavy rare earths. As recently announced, yttrium is now
included in the Phalaborwa resource and the project is expected to produce ca.
213t yttrium oxide per annum as part of the high-purity, mixed SEG+ product.

 

According to data from Argus Media Ltd, the price of yttrium oxide 99.999%
Cost, Insurance, Freight ("CIF") Europe started the year at ca. US$6/kg but it
has risen to current levels of between US$220/kg to US$320/kg (the large
spread is due to differing pricing contracts). This surge in pricing is due to
the issues around export of the metal from China further to the imposition of
export controls in April which have led to major supply chain disruption and
shortages in the market.

 

These shortfalls have highlighted how extensively used yttrium is across
civilian high-tech and defence applications.

 

The pricing increase causes a material positive impact on Phalaborwa
economics, with the potential addition of +US$30 million to the project's
EBITDA at today's lower range of the European price, based on a conservative
SEG+ payability of 70%.

 

George Bennett, CEO, commented: "The disruption and huge price increase for
yttrium has once again highlighted the fragility of global dependence on China
for strategic minerals, especially those like yttrium that are essential to
high-tech and defence manufacturing.  Phalaborwa is a stand-out project in
the rare earth space because it is a near-term and low-capital intensity
source of all the economically and strategically important rare earths,
including the heavies such as yttrium. This price increase positively impacts
annual estimated EBITDA for Phalaborwa as there will be no extra cost to
produce it as part of our proposed SEG+ product."

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 

 Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd   Company  George Bennett         +27 (0) 82 652 8526

                                    Pete Gardner
                           IR       Cathy Malins           +44 (0) 7876 796 629

                                                           cathym@rainbowrareearths.com (mailto:cathym@rainbowrareearths.com)
 Tavistock Communications  PR/IR    Charles Vivian         +44 (0) 20 7920 3150

                                    Eliza Logan            rainbowrareearths@tavistock.co.uk (mailto:rainbowrareearths@tavistock.co.uk)
 Berenberg                 Broker   Matthew Armitt         +44 (0) 20 3207 7800

                                    Jennifer Lee

 Stifel                    Broker   Ashton Clanfield       +44 (0) 20 7710 7600

                                    Varun Talwar

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
pioneering the first commercial recovery of rare earth elements from
phosphogypsum that occurs as the by-product of phosphoric acid production.
These projects eliminate the cost and risk of typical rare earth projects,
which involve mining and the production of a rare earth concentrate that must
be chemically cracked to form a mixed rare earth carbonate before further
downstream processing. As such, Rainbow's projects can be brought into
production quicker and at a lower cost than traditional hard rock mining
projects.

The Company is focused on the development of the Phalaborwa Project in South
Africa and the earlier stage Uberaba Project in Brazil. Rainbow's process will
deliver separated rare earth oxides through a single hydrometallurgical plant
on site, with a focus on the recovery of neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium
and terbium. These are critical components of the high-performance permanent
magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, defence and exciting new
markets such as robotics and advanced air mobility.

The Phalaborwa updated interim economic study released in December 2024 has
confirmed strong base line economics for the project, which has a base case
NPV(10) of US$611 million. Given Phalaborwa is a chemical processing
operation, with its resource sitting at surface in a chemically cracked form,
it has a much lower operating cost than traditional rare earth mining
projects, and it is therefore estimated to be the highest margin rare earth
project in development today outside of China.

More information is available at www.rainbowrareearths.com
(http://www.rainbowrareearths.com/) or by visiting the Rainbow Rare Earths
Curation Showcase at: Curation Connect - Rainbow Rare Earths Showcase
(https://app.curationconnect.com/company/Rainbow-Rare-Earths-90903?utm_source=media&utm_campaign=media&utm_id=media)
or https://app.curationconnect.com/company/Rainbow-Rare-Earths-90903
(https://app.curationconnect.com/company/Rainbow-Rare-Earths-90903)

 www.curationconnect.com (http://curationconnect.com)

 

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