Rare earths: China bans technology exports!

One might actually have expected this: According to reports from the Reuters news agency, Beijing is banning the export of technologies used to extract and separate so-called rare earth elements. Rare earths are of great strategic importance to the West, however, as they are crucial both in military equipment and in the field of electrification and renewable energies!

This naturally plays into the hands of Canada’s Ucore Rare Metals (TSXV UCU / WKN A2QJQ4), which is in the process of positioning itself in a targeted North American supply chain with its RapidSX technology for separating rare earths.

And just today, the company announced that it has completed the planned commissioning work at the RapidSX demonstration plant in Kingston, Ontario, for the separation of heavy and light rare earth elements. The corresponding programs on behalf of the US Department of Defense and then the Canadian government could now begin.

“Since the beginning of the year, the Company has been testing, adapting and optimizing its 52-stage demonstration plant to achieve its RapidSX™ commercialization and demonstration goals in Louisiana,” stated Mike Schrider, P.E., Ucore Vice President & Chief Operating Officer. “Ucore is very pleased to announce the completion of the commissioning of its third and final mixed chemical REE concentrate and the commencement of its U.S. DoD demonstration program. The objective of this program is to make a direct techno-economic comparison between conventional solvent extraction [CSX] and RapidSX™ for the separation of heavy and light rare earth elements and to establish RapidSX™ technology for commercial use in North America.”

Technology exceeds expectations

Ucore’s partner Kingston Process Metallurgy has been working with the company on RapidSX™ since 2020, as Dr. Boyd Davis, Co-Head of KPM explains. He continues: “We are very pleased with the successful transition from the last LREE commissioning feed to the HREE demonstration feed without any operational interruptions. The automated front-end leach system has been commissioned, is running according to plan and is matching the throughput of the RapidSX™. During the final commissioning phase, we processed over a tonne of mixed rare earths in less than a week of running time, meeting our product specification targets – it’s gratifying when a technology meets and exceeds expectations.” The focus is now on the balance between loading and purification of the first heavy rare earth demonstration run, as in any solvent extraction plant, it added.

Conclusion: It has long been reported, not least by Goldinvest.de, how important it is for the West to become independent of China in the processing of rare earths. The export ban on separation technology for rare earths and production technology for rare earth metals and alloys that has now been announced makes this particularly clear. And it is clear that Ucore’s decision to position itself as a technology provider in the middle of a planned – and inevitable – North American rare earth supply chain was extremely far-sighted.