About
Rainbow Rare Earths aims to be a forerunner in the establishment of an independent and ethical supply chain of the rare earth elements that are driving the green energy transition and other advanced future-facing technologies. It is doing this successfully via pioneering the first commercial recovery of rare earth elements from phosphogypsum that occurs as the by-product of phosphoric acid production. These projects eliminate the cost and risk of mining, meaning that they can be brought into production quicker and at a lower cost than traditional hard rock mining projects.
The Company is developing the Phalaborwa Project in South Africa and the earlier stage Uberaba Project in Brazil. Rainbow’s process is expected to deliver two products that are highly sought-after by industry: separated neodymium and praseodymium (together “NdPr”) oxide and a SEG+ mixed rare earth carbonate which will include the valuable heavy rare earth elements dysprosium and terbium, as well as a range of other commercially important rare earths, being: samarium, europium, gadolinium and yttrium. These light and heavy REE are critical components for the green energy transition, as well as being extensively used across many civilian and defence applications. They are also vital to exciting new markets, such as robotics and advanced air mobility.
The Phalaborwa updated interim economic study released in December 2024 has confirmed strong base line economics for the project, which has a base case NPV10 of US$611 million. Given Phalaborwa is a chemical processing operation, with its resource sitting at surface in a chemically cracked form, it has a much lower operating cost than traditional rare earth mining projects, and it is therefore estimated to be one of the highest margin rare earth projects in development today outside of China (according to an independent assessment by industry specialists Argus Media).
Rainbow is also working together with OCP S.A. and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University to explore and develop the optimal technique for the extraction of rare earth elements from sedimentary-sourced phosphogypsum.
Rainbow is listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE: RBW).