China Issues FAQs Clarifying Control Scope of Rare Earth Dual-Use Items

[SMM Rare Earth Flash] The Australian government recently escalated its scrutiny of investors linked to China in rare earth developer Northern Minerals. This May, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers ordered six China-linked shareholders to sell their combined holdings by July 2, citing national security concerns. After the shareholders failed to comply, the government froze part of the shares in July and imposed new conditions on Qogir and Real International Resources in August, requiring government review of any share sales. Northern Minerals is developing the Brown Ranges heavy rare earth project in Western Australia, which it says could become an "important cornerstone" of dysprosium and terbium supply outside China. The project has previously received up to $250 million in debt financing from Australia's export finance agency and the US Export-Import Bank, but shareholder disputes have hindered negotiations with US government financing agencies.

[SMM Rare Earth News] Canadian rare earth refiner Ucore Rare Metals recently announced that its commercial demonstration facility in Kingston, Ontario, has successfully produced high-purity (99.5%) Pr-Nd samples from two different raw material sources. The company used about 2 mt of mixed rare earth oxides from a Vietnamese ion-adsorption clay ore source and about 5 mt of mixed rare earth carbonates from a North American bastnaesite ore source. This achievement validates the versatility of Ucore's patented RapidSX™ rare earth separation technology platform for multiple raw materials with vastly different rare earth element compositions. The technology is chemically identical to conventional solvent extraction but offers faster throughput and a smaller equipment footprint. The company plans to achieve scaled production of Pr-Nd as well as samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, and yttrium at the Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex (SMC).