Ucore rare Earth Company RapidSX rare Earth processing Plant is expected to start production in the first quarter of 2022

Canada's Ucore Rare Metals (TSXV: UCU) and its subsidiary Innovation Metals have announced that the RapidSX demonstration-scale plant will start production in the first quarter of 2022, when the separation and purification of rare earth elements will take place.

The factory is located in Kingston, Ontario. According to the two companies, once a comprehensive, independent techno-economic study and subsequent design of the commercial-scale REE separation facility are completed, their RapidSX technology will be ready for commercial adoption and implementation in Ucore's strategic metal complex in Alaska. This is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2022 and a revenue-generating licensing model will be launched by the end of the year.

"our belief stems from our actions to support and fund IMC's efforts to develop RapidSX and its subsequent coordinated plan to deploy it to Alaska SMC, North America's first modern rare earth separation plant, to produce individual rare earth oxides as planned in the first half of 2024." Pat Ryan, chairman and CEO of Ucore, said in a media statement.

Ryan noted that after initial extraction rate tests were conducted in the summer of 2021, the Kingston process Metallurgical team subsequently completed a series of additional extraction rate tests to further validate the method used and quantify the impact of potential phenomena used using RapidSX columns.

The 3D CAD model designed by the IMC demo device shows the layout and selection of additional supporting hardware for the RapidSX contactor-separator pair.

The executive said such tests used a variety of hybrid REE solutions, including commercial raw materials purchased from US allies.

"with the relevant empirical work now over, an independent report describing the findings is scheduled to be released in January 2022." He said.

The chairman of Ucore also mentioned that IMC has made significant progress in mathematical modeling of chemical processes that occur during the operation of RapidSX technology in recent months.

"these models will form the basis for proprietary software that will be used on a commercial scale to control RapidSX-based separation facilities to optimize the parameters of the physical hardware platform." He noted that "the mathematical model has been effectively used to develop the REE separation process and extraction rate testing system, and will help finalize the process for the initial activity, which will be carried out using the demonstration plant."

In addition to the modeling work, Pat Ryan said, IMC has been working with researchers at the University of Toronto to develop and evaluate proprietary, cost-effective methods to reduce the amount of yttrium in raw materials rich in heavy REE before using RapidSX for separation.

He explained that yttrium is a low-value REE, that reduces the amount of Y in heavy REE feedstock before subsequent separation, potentially reducing operating costs and the plant size required, thereby reducing the cost of capital.