Ann: Mineral Resource Estimate Increased Threefold at Makuutu, page-26

Interesting the data provides JORC with and without Ce, so will be interesting how exactly the Scoping Study unfolds. I am not sure if previous MRE posted data on rare earths with or without Ce - but table 2 has tweaked my interest on why in terms of a SS proposal. BTW very very good to see the MRE has an increased Indicated Resource, but in terms of a SS it doesn't matter, and the three fold increase in MRE is good as well, very good.

In VML, the proposal is to provide product to REE at ex-cerium, so the below may help if that also becomes the intention of the SS as well herein in terms of what IXR proposes to sell to downstream converters - refined below herein by me. Obviously still need to be doing feasibility studies here so a lot to still do, so the below should be read in that context noting risks, and risk/reward equations herein, but still more work to do as IXR remains a specultative stock etc etc :


Reworded from some comments I made in the other stock

What does ex-cerium in a process flowsheet mean. In brief, you can more easily remove cerium from rare earths because it is relatively stable in oxidized form, with the other elements then recovered by solvent extraction by and large. The question is where in the process does this happen?
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309342584_Cerium_Separation_from_Light_Rare_Earth_Concentrate_by_Liquid-Liquid_Extraction

In addition, cerium in the rare earth solution that goes to separation facilities can act as a 'penalty' hence you want to be removing this, if you can, before your sales to Separation facilities and obviously sell what cerium you recover yourself - i.e. your customers that separate the rare earth elements from the solution.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-95022-8_233

In producing a beneficiated product, you have firstly a Rare Earth Extraction Plant (miner likely) and then secondly a Separation Plant (downstream converter or another miner's facility).

An Extraction Plant produces a form of rare earth product that downstream facilities then use to extract the individual rare earth elements. The question is, is cerium removed in the Rare Earth Extraction Plant? My reading of the below paper, is that most likely the removal of cerium happens post this Extraction Plant stage or in the latter stages of the Extraction Plant itself, which suggests to me the IXR SS may possibly will attach a small unit to the RareEarth Extraction Plant to deal with cerium before REE deals with the other rare earths in the Separation facility. That is IXR's defined SS, when it come out, Rare Earth Extraction Plant may deal with cerium itself to maximise price received, noting after extraction they can also sell the cerium itself.

The SS will be interesting in due course, and the revised MRE is very very good. It now turns to economics, and given it is a clay, with a decent PPM TREO, I am expecting that to be good too..

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319620369_A_Review_of_Rare_Earth_Mineral_Processing_Technology

All IMO