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Highlights:
- Rare earth elements (REEs) hold extreme importance in today's context due to their application in new-age technologies.
- REEs refers to a group of seventeen elements, including scandium, yttrium, and fifteen lanthanide elements.
- Many ASX-listed companies are moving forward with full gusto to develop their REE projects.
Rare earth elements (REEs), which find application in most new-age technologies, are among the most sought-after commodities of recent times. They are attracting immense limelight as their applications range from smartphones, laptops, to defence systems, wind turbines and electric vehicles.
This has boosted the overall interest of the government and organisations worldwide that are looking to keep their REE inventories loaded to fuel their sustainable development.
What are Rare Earth Elements?
Rare earth elements is a term coined to address a group of seventeen elements, including scandium, yttrium, and fifteen lanthanide elements. These elements are grouped together because of their strong affinity towards each other based on the similarity between their physical and chemical properties.
This strong affinity makes their extraction from their ore and then their individual extraction a tough nut to crack.
Amid the current upbeat scenario, many companies are moving forward with full gusto to develop their REE-based projects.
Here we have discussed the recent developments of few ASX-listed REE players.
Olympio Metals Limited (ASX:OLY), an ASX-listed critical minerals explorer, has renewed the exploration licence of its Eurelia Niobium–Rare Earth Element Carbonatite Project (EL6374). The company believes that its South Australia-based project holds significant niobium (Nb) and REE mineralisation within the Adelaide Geosyncline.
The company is also encouraged by the previous limited rock chip sampling program. As part of this campaign, the company defined a trend a of coincident elevated Nb and REEs covering more than 10 kilometres. This also included a maximum of 772ppm Nb and 4,754ppm Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO).
Moreover, OLY has hit a significant intersection of 9m @ 1,647ppm TREO from 7m from the only drill hole within this 10km trend.
Subject to regulatory go ahead, Olympio plans maiden exploration early in the new year.
Arafura Rare Earths Limited (ASX:ARU): The company has completed the Tranche 1 of its AU$121 million placement unveiled in early December. ARU raised nearly AU$95.87 million before costs in the Tranche 1, while Tranche 2 is subject to shareholders’ approval. The proceeds are planned to be directed towards the Nolans project development.
The company holds the shovel-ready Nolans Neodymium-Praseodymium (NdPr) project in the Northern Territory. As per ARU, Nolans is an advanced-stage NdPr-focused project where the company plans to mine and process ore to oxide at a single site.
The company highlights strong project economics with 68% increase in NPV8 to AU$2.4 billion and average AU$573m annual EBITDA at NdPr price of US$130 per kg.
Meeka Metals Limited (ASX:MEK): The ASX-listed company holds two REE projects in its portfolio of rare earth projects in Western Australia. These are Circle Valley and Cascade Rare Earths Project.
In early December, the company announced the results of the upstream beneficiation tests, highlighting that a major portion of the valuable rare earth elements (90.4%) is recoverable in the -20µm size fraction. Also, the rare earth grade saw an increase of up to 91% by rejecting the coarse fraction (+20µm).
The company is currently executing the next phase of metallurgical testing with recovery optimisation test work.
