President Donald Trump has designs on potential uncommon earth sources in Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Greenland. However one firm says it has developed a better strategy to entry important minerals wanted for army drones, wind generators and electrical automobiles.
At a plant on Belfast Harbour in Northern Ireland, Ionic Applied sciences, a unit of Australian inventory exchange-listed Ionic Uncommon Earths, has patented a technique for extracting the 4 highest-value and most in-demand uncommon earth oxides from industrial magnets.
China dominates each rare earths mining and processing, and the market is efficacious: Adamas Intelligence, a consultancy centered on provide chains for important supplies, predicts that the worldwide worth of uncommon earth oxides used to make magnets will develop greater than fivefold to $44.1bn by 2040.
In consequence, western efforts to acquire uncommon earths by recycling have intensified.
Corporations akin to Solvay in France, REEcycleinc within the US, Norway’s REEtec, HyProMag within the UK, Sweden’s LKAB and Germany’s Heraeus Remloy are searching for to extract uncommon earths from magnets, batteries, mining and different merchandise, however Ionic says its course of and skill to separate them set it aside in a “very area of interest” market.
The corporate, spun out from Queen’s College Belfast as Seren Applied sciences earlier than being taken over by Ionic Uncommon Earths in 2022, is in talks to broaden into the US, the place Trump has made clear his purpose to boost supplies of the minerals wanted for superior manufacturing and defence.
Ionic says that by counting on end-of-life magnets which are broadly accessible, its method reduces dependence on provides from China and permits high-purity manufacturing of the person uncommon earth parts praseodymium, neodymium, terbium and dysprosium at business scale.
“Our USP [unique selling proposition] is that we’re the one firm doing the separation . . . outdoors China,” mentioned Tim Harrison, managing director of Ionic Uncommon Earths.
The Belfast plant expects to supply 400 tonnes per yr of separated uncommon earth oxides with internet income of $2.12bn over its 20-year lifespan, in response to its feasibility research.
That was sufficient for roughly 2 gigawatts of wind generators or about 200,000 EV motors, Harrison mentioned.
Neha Mukherjee, uncommon earths senior analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, noticed “many rising gamers” however mentioned Ionic had a “head begin”.
Uncommon earths will not be essentially uncommon, regardless of their identify, however competing with low cost Chinese language processing is hard and pricing might be opaque.
Ionic Applied sciences has acquired £5mn in UK authorities grants. Julian Hetherington, director of automotive transformation on the UK’s Superior Propulsion Centre, which delivered a few of that funding, mentioned the corporate’s “secret sauce” was its capability to separate particularly the heavy uncommon earth oxides — terbium and dysprosium — whose manufacturing in China has “flatlined” lately, and that are required to make magnets in a position to stand up to excessive temperatures.
“There’s nearly no public area IP on the way you separate out the ‘heavies’ to a excessive diploma of purity, it’s all actually reserved in China . . . That is the place Ionic do have slightly little bit of a bonus.”
Ionic is searching for a “cornerstone” funding from the UK’s Automotive Transformation Fund to maneuver to business manufacturing in early 2027.
At its demonstration plant, particular person uncommon earth parts from ground-up magnets are extracted in big 1,000-litre tanks and circuits earlier than being handed by a kiln to supply oxides.
Underneath a partnership with Ford and UK alloy producer Much less Frequent Metals — backed by a £1mn UK authorities grant — Ionic Applied sciences has a deal to produce parts for demonstration electrical motors utilizing fully recycled uncommon earths by the tip of 2025.
However Harrison mentioned Ionic Applied sciences was additionally in “superior talks” to broaden throughout the Atlantic as Washington sought to safe provides of uncommon earths important for F-35 jets, submarines and drones.
“We aren’t far off having the ability to cement a footprint there,” mentioned Harrison. The US Division of Power had no fast remark.
Ionic’s patented know-how was replicable — crops may very well be up and working inside two years, Harrison mentioned, with the manufacturing course of taking about 48 hours.
Common manufacturing prices on the Belfast plant are barely lower than $43 per kg. Market costs for the 4 oxides Ionic can extract vary from about $62 per kg for neodymium oxide to virtually $900 per kg for terbium oxide.
John Meyer, companion and head of analysis at brokers and advisers SP Angel, mentioned: “China produces every thing so cheaply it’s very laborious to undercut [them].” However utilizing generally accessible uncooked supplies — magnets — supplied safety of provide “so long as you will get sufficient of them”.
Harrison mentioned the 4 parts Ionic was specializing in made up greater than 90 per cent of the uncommon earths’ market worth. Dysprosium and terbium have the best provide danger and the largest potential industrial financial impression.
By 2030, the UK is forecast to eat as much as 12 per cent of uncommon earths globally, in response to the UK Important Minerals Intelligence Centre.
In addition to the US, Nato nations and others, together with Brazil, Japan and South Korea, have been searching for to diversify provide chains, Harrison mentioned. “Any uncommon earth improvement outdoors China would require western authorities help” to counter many years of Chinese language funding in mining and processing, he mentioned.
However by disrupting Beijing’s stranglehold “we are able to construct a number of crops within the US or western markets”, Harrison added.
“It’s a really, very fast resolution to a direct drawback.”
