TIDMRBW
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/ .
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 40 C set out in the Preliminary Economic
Assessment to 30 C , 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 George Bennett
Ltd Company Pete Gardner +27 82 652 8526
IR Cathy Malins +44 7876 796 629
cathym@rainbowrareearths.com
Matthew Armitt
Berenberg Broker Jennifer Lee +44 (0) 20 3207 7800
Tavistock Communications PR/IR Charles Vivian +44 (0) 20 7920 3150
Tara Vivian-Neal 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] , 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 .
[1] Net present value using a 10% forward discount rate
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