Pilot Plant Producing Commercial Mixed REE Product

Rainbow Rare Earths is pleased to announce that its large-scale pilot plant recently commissioned in Johannesburg is operating the optimised Phalaborwa primary flowsheet in line with expectations and has successfully produced ca.2 kg of a high-grade mixed rare earth hydroxide, which is a commercial product.

As previously announced, the mixed rare earth product produced by the primary flowsheet is higher-grade than the industry norm, being ca. 55% TREO, versus the Chinese specifications for a mixed rare earth carbonate at ca. 42 to 44% TREO.

The production of this high-grade product has been confirmed as an ideal feed stream into the planned solvent extraction ("SX") separation circuit in order to produce NdPr oxide and a SEG+ product that is rich in medium and heavy REE, each at +99.5% purity. By delivering these separated products, Rainbow intends to capture more of the value chain by going further downstream than many REE projects.

George Bennett, CEO, commented:

"This is an important de-risking event for the project, as the large-scale pilot plant is performing as expected and will now produce increasing quantities of the high-grade mixed REE hydroxide. The high purity of this product positions it as an ideal feed stream for the planned SX separation process in order to produce the NdPr oxide and SEG+ products of the desired +99.5% purity."

Pictures of the mixed REE hydroxide can be viewed at https://www.rainbowrareearths.com/news-media/media/.