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Technical Update - Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project
Technical Update - Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project.
About this update from Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n \n \n RNS Number : 0517F\n Rainbow Rare Earths Limited\n 12 November 2020\n \n \n \n 12 November 2020\n \n Rainbow Rare Earths Limited\n (\"Rainbow\" or the \"Company\")\n (LSE: RBW)\n \n Technical Update for the Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project\n Rainbow Rare Earths is pleased to announce further technical details for the Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project (the \"Project\") in South Africa, subject to the recently signed Co-Development Agreement (the \"Agreement\") with Bosveld Phosphates (Pty) Limited.\n \n Key findings of the ongoing technical work to date include:\n \n \n · As previously announced, Sasol established a fully developed process flow sheet for the recovery of rare earth elements (\"REE\") from the gypsum stacks, the details of which are now being reviewed by Rainbow's technical staff.\n \n · The pilot plant developed by Sasol successfully produced three tonnes of mixed rare earth carbonate and an associated cerium oxide from the gypsum.\n \n ·The pilot plant remains on site and is available to be recommissioned under the Agreement - this is expected to be a key asset in the development of the final optimised processing flow sheet for the Project.\n \n ·Importantly, the REE minerals exist in chemical form in the two gypsum stacks, which generates two important benefits when compared to a traditional rare earth mining project:\n \n \n o The expected costs of beneficiation are significantly lower than for a mined mineral rare earth project.\n \n o The value of the resulting mixed rare earth carbonate will be significantly higher than a mineral concentrate, such as that produced at Rainbow's Gakara project in Burundi.\n \n \n ·Initial reports suggest that the mixed rare earth carbonate is likely to generate up to 80% of the underlying rare earth metal prices for the Project, compared to approximately 30%, which is currently received by Rainbow from the sale of the Gakara mineral concentrate from Burundi.\n \n ·Initial technical due diligence, based on historical assays, estimates that the proposed treatment of 2Mtpa of gypsum could deliver 10,000tpa of mixed rare earth carbonate containing c. 3,100t Neodymium (\"Nd\") and Praseodymium (\"Pr\") (together \"NdPr\"), making Rainbow a significant producer of NdPr from the successful development of Phalaborwa.\n &...