“With a copper resource you have a good idea whether it will fly or not, based on size and grade, but with clay-based rare earth situations, it appears that only a small number have the right mineralogy.” Source: Share Care story, Right Deposit, Right Place.
The world remains heavily dependent on China and Chinese-owned companies for critical materials such as rare earths. With 80-90 per cent of the value of the rare earths market derives from permanent magnet rare earths: terbium, dysprosium, praseodymium, and neodymium, only clay deposits are well endowed with terbium and dysprosium which are the so-called super-magnet rare earths used in electric vehicles (EVs) and wind turbines.
Yet, the reality of all ionic adsorption clay (IAC) rare earths’ projects is that, it is not like a copper deposit where based on the right size and grade of the resource you can extrapolate whether it will be a goer or not! Relative to traditional hard-rock sources, a key benefit of an IAC-type deposit is that the rare earths are only loosely attached to the clay particles, so can be separated with a cost-efficient solution. This negates the need for heavy acid treatment and lowers costs significantly. Therefore, for rare earths project found in an IAC deposit, you need a lot of luck for it to be economically recoverable.
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