Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd (LSE:RBW, OTC:RBWRF) told investors it has begun an Economic Assessment for the Uberaba rare earths project, in Brazil, in partnership with The Mosaic Company.
The study will assess the recovery of rare earths from phosphogypsum at Mosaic’s phosphoric acid facility.
It is expected that the facility would process around 4.3 million tonnes per year, around double the scale of Rainbow’s Phalaborwa project in South Africa.
The average grade used in the economic assessment will be 0.58% total rare earth oxides, of which 24.5% would be neodymium and praseodymium, plus dysprosium and terbium in economic amounts.
Rainbow said the Uberaba project is expected to be low in capital intensity and cost.
It will be evaluated based on an initial 15-year life, with the pair of companies splitting the cost of the assessment (around $230,000).
"We are delighted to have made significant progress with the commencement of a formal EA of the Uberaba project, which reflects the strong collaboration between Rainbow and Mosaic under our MOU,” Rainbow chief executive George Bennett said in a statement.
Bennett added: “Uberaba is an exciting project for Rainbow, given the technical similarities with Phalaborwa; however, it represents a significantly larger economic opportunity over the long term due to the sheer scale of the planned annual feed rate and the long-term nature of the underlying phosphate deposit.
“As at Phalaborwa, we expect Uberaba to be a low-capital intensity project and a low-cost source of the critical rare earths driving the green energy transition and other advanced and emerging technologies."