Rainbow Rare Earth study pin points high margin potential

AN interim economic study by Rainbow Rare Earths into extracting rare earth elements from the Phalaborwa phosphogypsum stacks shows the project would have an operating cost of $12.91/kg of total separated rare earth oxides (REO). This makes it the highest-margin REO in development today outside China, the company said on Monday.What makes the operating cost so low is that the material is already available on surface, which eliminates the need for mining, hauling, crushing, grinding, flotation and cracking.Rare earth elements are vital to a range of industries, including defence and aerospace, and are used in items such as wind turbines, cars, computers and cellphones. China accounts for over 90% of global production of heavy rare earth elements and separated REO.The US government has shown support for this project, with the US International Development Finance Corporation prepared to invest $50m in it through TechMet, the investment company chaired by Brian Menell.Rainbow’s interim economic study, which has a higher level of confidence than its previous preliminary economic assessment, shows the upfront capital cost of developing the project at $326.1m. This assumes processing 2.2Mt of phosphogypsum a year for 16 years to produce about 1,900t of magnet REO a year at a recovery rate of 65%. As separation test work continues, Rainbow will examine ways to optimize capital costs.Even using the lowest rare earths basket price, at the operating margins shown by the study, the mine could still generate about $63m of EBITDA a year at steady state, Rainbow said.The post Rainbow Rare Earth study pin points high margin potential appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com