On a technical note for those that don't know yet - from...

On a technical note for those that don't know yet - from investor preso 13/3/23


This might get a little boring but however knowledgeable, so get your chemistry set out and give it a go
The testing of solvents will be a very technical task but maybe not for the people that do it daily
What they are saying already is that the Stallion deposit will be in a more efficient economic class to leach than most others out there, in turn delivering the products will be more profitable

Typical REE-bearing ores usually contain REEs as either carbonate ((REE)(CO₃)F) or phosphate ((REE)PO₄) minerals, which require processing with concentrated sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄), hydrochloric acid (HCl), or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at elevated temperatures to achieve extraction.³ There exists a third class of REE-ores typically in southern China and other subtropical areas that is called ionic clay. Ionic clays are formed by the chemical weathering of REE-containing parent rocks, resulting in the mobilization of REE ions, and the enrichment of the REEs onto the clay surface by ion adsorption.⁴ In the majority of ionic clays reported so far, for example the ones from southern China, REEs are mostly surface-adsorbed, rather than being locked within the bulk of mineral phases; hence, they can be desorbed under relatively mild conditions by heap-leaching clay mounds or by in-situ leaching of the clay with mild lixiviant solutions and collecting the REE-rich runoff

Once the REEs are desorbed from the ionic clay and extracted into the solution, they can be separated from the solution and purified via a variety of methods such as selective precipitation, solvent extraction, and ion-exchange, then calcined to obtain either a mixed rare earth oxide (REO) product, or individual separated REOs.¹⁰

There are several benefits in sourcing REE from ionic clays, such as low mining and pre-treatment costs, low reagent and energy consumption, low environmental/safety risks, low co-extraction of hazardous radioactive materials, and high recovery of valuable heavy REEs