SMM Rare Earth Afternoon Trading Comment on September 22

[SMM Rare Earth Daily Review: Rare earth prices diverge, with Pr-Nd rising continuously while medium-heavy rare earth remains in the doldrums] Overall, today's rare earth market showed a divergent pattern of "Pr-Nd prices raised while medium-heavy rare earth prices remained in the doldrums." In terms of transactions, the higher quotes did not simultaneously ignite buying interest. Downstream magnetic material enterprises remained largely in a wait-and-see mood, mainly purchasing on a rigid demand basis, and the actual negotiation center between buyers and sellers still had a gap. In the short term, although downstream magnetic material enterprises' rigid stocking demand emerged as the holiday approaches, their capacity to accept high-priced metals is limited, and Pr-Nd product prices may move sideways in a narrow range.

The Dominican Republic's Ministry of Energy and Mines reported that the country has compiled more than 5,000 sample analysis results from the rare earth project, making it possible to determine the project's resource estimate in November this year. The ministry plans to announce the project's first reserves in H1 2027 once the required technical and economic feasibility studies, including metallurgical, economic, environmental, and logistics studies, are completed. Dominican Minister of Energy and Mines Joel Santos announced the results and also commended the Cooperation Framework signed between the Dominican Republic and the US. The framework aims to secure the supply of critical minerals such as rare earths, a strategic step to consolidate bilateral relations and attract investment.

Nasdaq-listed enterprise Critical Metals announced that its patent-pending process can dissolve more than 99% of the minerals in eudialyte concentrates from the Tanbreez project in Greenland and recover 19 ultra-high-purity rare earth and critical metal products. Eudialyte is a rare red or pink silicate ore and a major industrial source of zirconium, hafnium, and heavy rare earth elements. Tanbreez, located at Killavaat Alannguat in southern Greenland, is regarded as one of the largest undeveloped heavy rare earth assets outside China. The company plans to build a proposed refinery in Romania with an annual output value of $2.2 billion, using this patented process. Under current terms, the proposed Romanian refinery is expected to receive 50% of total concentrates production, with a designed annual processing capacity of 100,000 mt of eudialyte concentrates, producing approximately 27,943 mt of rare earth and critical metal products per year (in forms such as chloride salts) based on the current model. Current preliminary capital expenditure is estimated at $1.85 billion, with annual revenue of approximately $2.2 billion (before deducting operating costs, taxes, and capital recovery), and a payback period of about two years.