As i understand it there are LREO and HREO separation facilities.
REEtec confirmed to me directly via email they couldn't process IXR's product for HREO even if they wanted to. I can confirm that the 2 companies had spoken.
Further investigations confirmed that there is very little separation capacity outside china (currently). The exceptions was Shin-Etsu's plant in Vietnam which i posted about the other day. Post #:53569094
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., 2014, Shin-Etsu Chemical to construct a rare earth magnet manufacturing plant in Hai Phong Province in Vietnam: Tokyo, Japan, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. news release, April 21, accessed October 20, 2015, at http://www.shinetsu.co.jp/en/news/ archive.php?id=365.
There was another one i found VTRE http://vtre.vn/ tbh not sure if it's the same mob, or the Vietnam subsidery of shin-etsu. Need to look more.
Back to IXR, they've announced that they are looking for downstream options where that is whom that is with is to be determined. However it's my belief that most likely we'll find our product separated in china at least in the initial stages potentially module 1 goes to chinalco as a bird in the hand. In the meantime tee-up the remaining 4 modules of production to available capacity outside china.
You can only sell to a separator with the capacity and ability to do so. Atm there's not a huge HREO sep capacity that i'm aware of. There are some plants yes, but most are already operating to/near capacity. Shin-etsu for eg is treating vietnams ionic clay deposit. I'm sure if they had the capacity for us that we'll be well advanced in convos.
Agree recoveries make a difference but i also recently note about book cooking relating to this. Worth reading about double desorption if you're not already familiar.
The recovery I have seen Biolantanidos report is named a "DD Recovery" or "double desorption" recovery. To my understanding, this reports the recovery of rare earths from those that are in ionic or soluble forms within the mineralisation, not the recovery of rare earths from ALL rare earths that is within the mineralisation. Confusing, I know, but here is an example to explain:
Example of regular recovery calculation:
REE in a parcel of mineralisation = 100 kg
Metallurgical recovery = 50%
Overall Metallurgical recovery = 50%
Mass of REE product = 50kg
Example of incorporating a double desorption recovery calculation:
REE in a parcel of mineralisation = 100 kg
Amount of contained REE in mineralisation that is in soluble or colloidal form = 30% (determined by double desorption "DD" test)
Amount of REE in soluble or colloidal form that is recovered by single desorption test = 90% (aiming to replicate commercial reality)
Overall metallurgical recovery = 30% x 90% = 27%
Mass of REE product = 100 kg x 27% = 27 kg
Post #:52977701 confirms this and should be noted if making peer comparisons.
IXR for the record is using mass recoveries not double desorption recoveries.
But if speaking simply on paper that improved recoveries would be good then yes totally agree - however they are doing quite well on peer comparison basis given how long they've been at it. confident we'll see an improvement between now and the BFS given the working capital attributed to it and additionally the expertise of Chinalco now which are assisting us, in a technical standpoint, to bring project to production.
@Teringie i've been using SMM (shanghai metal market) you can view free to get somewhat current data and or sign-up for a trial to get more updated info. TBH that will still only give you a raw commodity price for each element. They do have some MREC pricing but it's not reflective of individual baskets. Only way to effectively understand each projects actual revenue at spot price is to do the calc. I've got just about every REO company i know so i can share at anytime - if the data's wrong (the jorc/recoveries) then call it out. I don't monitor all stocks daily - just arbitrarily update them when i'm made aware.
@Boston007 agree with you. There in lies the natural sell off between exploration and development which supports my view that there was always going to a be a lull where speculators leave. In term of day 1 of production it's not too bad a timeline from where we are. The comment of compress the project i.e. ramp up quicker becomes much more viable to present when you have more than 80mT to support production profile. Had they done 12.5mtpa from day 1 the capex would be high and out of material in 4years. Expect a better ramp up in the BFS.
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