An independent study carries out by Rainbow Rare Earths at its Phalaborwa Project in South Africa has highlighted the project as one of the highest margin rare earth projects under development globally.  The study showed a Post tax Net Present Value of US$611 million with the projects economics remaining robust despite two years of inflation totalling ca. 12% since publication of the PEA and modifications to the flowsheet.

The low operating cost establishes Phalaborwa as the highest margin REE project in development today outside of China.

George Bennett, CEO of Rainbow, commented:

“The findings of the Interim Study confirm the exceptional economics of Phalaborwa first published in the PEA, after two years of significant inflationary pressure. The capital and operating cost estimates, now at a much higher level of economic confidence than at the PEA stage, confirm that Phalaborwa remains the highest margin rare earth project in development today outside of China. This is testament to the incredible contribution of the technical team at Rainbow over the past two years.

This update reaffirms that Phalaborwa is extremely well positioned to contribute to the establishment of an independent and resilient supply chain for the REE critical to decarbonisation, defence and emerging technologies.

Going into the New Year, we now look forward to focusing on opportunities to drive further optimisation of our capital and operating costs, and to completing the separation test work.”

News in full

We caught up with CEO George Bennett at the 2024 Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town. He provided an update on Rainbow’s operations, but also told us about the many uses of rare earths and why they are so important in the global energy transition.