Comienza la separación de óxidos de tierras raras en EE. UU.
11 de enero de 2024
Rainbow Rare Earths Limited
("Rainbow"O"la empresa")
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
COMUNICADO DE PRENSA
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 que utiliza disolventes y diluyentes tóxicos e inflamables y requiere más de 100 etapas separadas. 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.
Las cuatro tierras raras que se producirán en Phalaborwa (NdPr, Dy y Tb) están designadas como minerales críticos debido a su importante papel en la transición a la economía verde. Como componentes vitales de los imanes permanentes, estos elementos de tierras raras se utilizan en vehículos eléctricos y turbinas eólicas, así como en muchas otras tecnologías avanzadas, incluidas las necesarias para fines de defensa estratégica, como misiles guiados, drones, pantallas electrónicas, sonares y motores de aviones de combate. .
George Bennett, CEO de Rainbow, comentó: "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."
Para más información, por favor póngase en contacto con:
Tierras raras del arco iris Ltd | Empresa | Jorge Bennett Pete Gardner | +27 82 652 8526
|
| IR | Cathy Malins | +44 7876 796 629 |
Berenberg | Broker | matthew armit Jennifer Lee
| +44 0 20 3207 7800 |
Comunicaciones Tavistock | RP/IR | Carlos Viviana Tara Vivian Neal | +44 0 20 7920 3150 |
Notas para los redactores:
Acerca del arco iris:
Rainbow Rare Earths pretende ser pionero en el establecimiento de una cadena de suministro ética e independiente de los elementos de tierras raras que están impulsando la transición a la energía verde. Lo está haciendo con éxito mediante la identificación y el desarrollo de depósitos secundarios de tierras raras que puedan ponerse en producción más rápido y a menor costo que los proyectos tradicionales de minería de roca dura, centrándose en los elementos de tierras raras de imán permanente neodimio y praseodimio, disprosio y terbio.
La Compañía está enfocada en el desarrollo de la Proyecto Phalaborwa de Tierras Raras en Sudáfrica y la etapa anterior del Proyecto Uberaba en Brasil. Ambos proyectos implican la recuperación de tierras raras de pilas de fosfoyeso que se producen como subproducto de la producción de ácido fosfórico, siendo la roca madre original de ambos depósitos una carbonatita de roca dura. Rainbow tiene la intención utilizar una técnica de separación patentada desarrollada por y en conjunto con su socio K-Technologies, Inc., que simplifica el proceso de producción de óxidos de tierras raras separados (en comparación con la extracción con solventes tradicional), lo que genera costos y beneficios ambientales.
La Evaluación Económica Preliminar de Phalaborwa ha confirmado una línea de base sólida para el proyecto, que tiene un VAN de caso base10 de US $ 627 millones[ 1 ], un margen operativo EBITDA promedio del 75% y un período de recuperación de < dos años. Las operaciones de la planta piloto comenzaron en 2023 y se espera que el proyecto alcance la producción comercial en 2026, solo cinco años después de que Rainbow comenzara a trabajar en el proyecto.
Más información disponible en www.rainbowrareearths.com.
[ 1 ] Valor actual neto utilizando una tasa de descuento a plazo del 10 %
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