Rainbow Rare Earths sets an October 5 investor update as Phalaborwa nears PFS, backed by a new Neo Performance Materials offtake MOU for NdPr and SEG+.
Country Profile
South Africa
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Overview
About South Africa
South Africa's critical-minerals strategy calls for processing at home, yet its rare-earth offtake plans send heavy rare earths and mixed products abroad for separation.
The deposits span several ore types. Steenkampskraal in the Western Cape is a monazite mine that Anglo American worked in the mid-twentieth century. The company says the state's Industrial Development Corporation is funding its first processing plant. At Phalaborwa, Rainbow Rare Earths plans to recover rare earths from phosphogypsum stacks left by historic phosphate mining. Zandkopsdrift in the Northern Cape would also produce battery-grade manganese sulfate, and Glenover in Limpopo pairs rare earths with phosphate.
Frontier Rare Earths plans to make NdPr oxide at Zandkopsdrift and has agreed to sell its mixed heavy rare-earth carbonate to Carester for processing in France. Rainbow's heavy fraction is designed for further separation by Neo Performance Materials under a memorandum of understanding. Steenkampskraal plans to deliver mixed carbonate to buyers in France, Norway and Canada.
Mintek, the national mineral research organization, has produced mixed rare-earth products from Steenkampskraal material in its laboratories, and Steenkampskraal says it is working with Mintek toward separation in South Africa. Whether domestic separation arrives before export offtakes set the pattern is the open question.
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REEx Intelligence
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