George Bennett, the CEO of Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd (LSE:RBW, OTC:RBWRF) explains to Proactive the significance of the recent pilot for its Phalaborwa rare earths project and what happens next.
George Bennett: We ran the pilot plant for far longer than originally anticipated, a total of 70 days.
During the piloting, we recognized some key optimisation opportunities. With that, we ran the pilot plant far longer. These optimizations have delivered very, very good results.
Proactive: And of course, they also support the fact that Phalaborwa will be one of the lowest-cost, magnet rare earth projects.
George Bennett: That's correct. These pilots have largely confirmed what we had in our preliminary economic assessment published on October 22nd, which is that we have very low opex.
Our recovery has improved, which is significant. Often, projects see a slip in recovery from a PEA to actual piloting or actual DFS, but our recoveries have gone from 65 to 66% overall, which is very positive.
George Bennett: Additionally, we anticipate that in the DFS, CapEx and overall OpEx will be more or less in line with the accuracy of the PEA.
Proactive: In the meantime, you plan to release some interim reports in the second half of this year to update the economics. What will that interim report reflect?
George Bennett: We expect the interim report to reflect and take into account these optimizations that we've seen.
We've been able to reduce lead circuit by 25%, from eight tanks to six tanks. We've also reduced our heating requirements for the project by 50%, which is a significant saving.
We've reduced our counter-current lead circuit from 12 tanks down to six, another 50% saving. Additionally, we've conducted a material construction study and found that we can use a lower grade of materials, reducing costs further.
George Bennett: The updated report will confirm the improvements in capital and OpEx that we are anticipating.
Proactive: Will you be able to proceed with project financing as you move towards the DFS next year?
George Bennett: Yes. We intend to use this updated number ahead of the final DFS numbers to launch project financing.
We are also working on further optimisations during this period, including a new infrared-based continuous baking system that will reduce our baking time to one hour, and optimizing key reagents like alum and sulfuric acid, which will significantly impact the project positively.
George Bennett: I would like to add that the results from K-Tech have been very positive. We've achieved over 96% purity on the second pass through ion chromatography, targeting 99.5% purity.
Achieving 95% on the first pass is very encouraging and we anticipate confirming that we can achieve 99.5% purity shortly.