Rainbow Rare Earth confirms high grade commercial product from pilot plant Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock
Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd told investors 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 approximately 2 kg of high-grade mixed rare earth hydroxide, which is a commercial product.
The mixed rare earth product is approximately 55% TREO, higher than the industry norm of 42-44% TREO according to Chinese specifications for mixed rare earth carbonate, it noted.
The company said high-grade product has been confirmed as an ideal feed stream for the planned solvent extraction separation circuit to produce NdPr oxide and a SEG+ product 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.
“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,” said chief executive George Bennett.
“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.”