The Board of Ionic Rare Earths Limited (“IonicRE” or “The Company”) (ASX: IXR) is pleased to advise on progress at Ionic Technologies International Ltd (“IonicTech”) Belfast facility in the UK, and the development of a Magnet Recycling Demonstration Plant to scale up the technology.
- Process commissioning progressing well at 66% complete with an inventory of intermediate products prepared and on schedule;
- First magnet recycling Demonstration Plant production of separated and refined, high purity magnet rare earth oxides (REO) expected this month;
- Wet commissioning of Solvent Extraction circuit commenced with operations moved to 24/7 this week;
- Pilot plant activities continuing is parallel to help confirm operational parameters for the separation circuit; and
- Magnet inventory continues to build with in excess of 50 tonnes of NdFeB permanent magnets now on hand to provide feedstock for the Demonstration Plant trials.
IonicTech is a 100% owned subsidiary based in Belfast UK, which the Company acquired in H1 2022 (formerly Seren Technologies Ltd). IonicTech has developed rare earth element separation and refining technology and applied this to the recycling of spent permanent Neodymium-Iron-Boron (NdFeB) magnets. The process uses a hydrometallurgical process to extract the rare earth elements (REE), then separate the individual magnet REEs within – Neodymium (Nd), Praseodymium (Pr), Dysprosium (Dy) and Terbium (Tb) – and finally refine to high purity individual magnet rare earths oxides (REO).
In September 2022, IonicTech was awarded a grant of £1.72 million (approximately A$2.9 million) from the UK Government’s Innovate UK Automotive Transformation Fund Scale-up Readiness Validation (SuRV) program, to develop a demonstration scale magnet recycling plant, a significant step towards securing the UK supply of critical rare earth metals for EV manufacture. The magnet recycling Demonstration Plant represents a scale up of the successful pilot plant campaigns completed to date and will provide further data for the development of a commercial facility(s).
Over the past six weeks, the Demonstration Plant equipment have been sequentially dry commissioned (94% complete) with safety systems installed prior to process commissioning activities which are now tracking at 66% complete. As part of process commissioning, several intermediate products and streams have been prepared to enable the overall circuit to progress on schedule with the target of producing first separated high purity Rare Earth Oxides (REOs) by the end of this month.
IonicTech continues to build upon its inventory of feedstock Demonstration Plant trials, which has now increased to in excess of 50 tonnes of NdFeB permanent magnets and swarf material.
The variable magnet REE content within the feed stock materials, with fluctuating compositions of magnet REEs, Nd, Pr, Dy and Tb, along with other REE detected in the magnets after analysis, will provide IonicTech with a solid foundation to demonstrate the technology’s attributes. Unlike many other recycling technologies, the IonicTech magnet recycling process is agnostic on magnet quality, can process oxidised magnets and can manage coatings and films, to produce individually separated and refined high purity REOs, which is providing significant interest to potential downstream users.
Over the past six-weeks, IonicTech has continued to implement safety systems and protections ahead of commissioning and operation activities as shown in Figure 1 to Figure 5.
IonicRE’s Managing Director Mr Tim Harrison commented on progress at IonicTech:
“The progress at IonicTech continues to plan with process commissioning on track to achieve the production of first separated oxides by the end of this month in Belfast.
“The successful commissioning and production of recycled high purity individual magnet REOs from our Magnet Recycling Demonstration Plant in Belfast facility will be a key catalyst for the Company in being able to establish further collaboration platforms and supply chain partnerships with magnet manufactures and end user customers.”
“Additionally, the successful commissioning and production of magnet REOs will be an important milestone for several discussions progressing to deploy the modular technology across western markets looking to develop domestic, secure, and sustainable supply chains from secondary sources through recycling.”
Demonstration Plant Update and Technology Overview
Since its founding in 2015, as a spinout from Queens University Belfast (QUB), IonicTech has developed processes for the separation and recovery of REEs from mining ore concentrates and waste permanent magnets. The technology developed has the potential to provide a step change in efficient, non-hazardous, and economically viable processing with minimal environmental footprint compared to current practices.
Impressively, IonicTech’s work to date has demonstrated capability for REEs to achieve near complete extraction of REO’s from lower quality spent magnets and waste (swarf) to a remarkable recovery of high value magnet REO product quality exceeding 99.9% REO.
This presents an opportunity for IonicTech to have “first mover” advantage in the industrial elemental extraction of REEs from spent magnets and waste, enabling near term magnet REO production capability to satisfy growing demand from lagging new supply chains.
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