Ionic Rare Earths wins UK government award for magnet recycling scale-up

Ionic Rare Earths has just been backed to the hilt by the new British government to the tune of £1.72 million, or about $2.9 million.

The UK Government’s Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) has come out with the massive grant to drive low-carbon emissions research by Ionic’s 100%-owned subsidiary Seren Technologies (SerenTech).

Based in Belfast, SerenTech was snapped up by Ionic Rare Earths (ASX: IXR) which completed the acquisition in April this year.

The move by the British government is not just a huge windfall for IXR, but a wonderful measurement of how highly the work at SerenTech is valued by the Brits.

APC is a key non-profit organisation over there which carefully backs UK-based R&D projects focused on developing low-carbon emission powertrain technologies. The ASPC set up is itself funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and run by Innovate UK.

SerenTech applied for the grant to develop a demonstration-scale magnet recycling plant, a significant step towards securing the UK supply of critical rare earth metals for EV manufacturing.

The company says magnet REO products are also crucial for facilitating offshore wind farm development.

The grant is part of the UK’s 1130: SuRV (Scale-Up Readiness Validation) competition and will go a long way to helping accelerate activity at SerenTech.

The SuRV competition targeted supporting businesses by part-funding the validation of products and their associated processes, as ready for scale-up, with a particular focus on producing physical samples, which can be used to validate a pilot production process.

The competition allocated £25 million to validate readiness for scale-up of low-carbon technology and processes with up to £2 million available for individual projects – with SerenTech receiving £1.72 million of this pool.

A delighted Tim Harrison, IonicRE’s managing director, called it a ‘tremendous endorsement’ of SerenTech’s focus, innovation and ambition, and one which highlights the massive scaling-up potential of the company’s tech.

“This grant validates the significance of magnet recycling in a tight supply market as well as pointing to the additional value for IonicRE shareholders in the longer-term.”

“Since IonicRE’s acquisition of SerenTech earlier this year, the team has been busy setting a platform to accelerate from the pilot scale studies at Queens’ University Belfast, and now relocation to a new commercial facility in Belfast, where a demonstration scale 30 tonne per annum magnet recycling circuit can be housed.

“The scale of the proposed demonstration plant will produce sufficient quantities of separated REOs for further product development with industry partners,” Harrison said.

Dramatic increases afoot

According to IXR, magnet recycling already represents approximately 25% of the current processed magnet REO production globally, which is dominated by China.

“In developing this technology, IonicRE is positioning itself as a vertically integrated rare earth participant developing and delivering a circular rare earth business plan,” Harrison said.

“We expect that the importance of a circular rare earth economy will increase dramatically over the next few years as the energy transition away from carbon gathers more momentum, and desire from governments to develop alternative secure supply chains amplifies.”

In delivering the award, Ian Constance, the CEO of the Advanced Propulsion Centre said the government’s backing would increase confidence in large-scale manufacturing investments and to build electrified supply chains in the UK.

“It is vital, in the transition to net zero, that the automotive sector seizes the opportunity to grow the industry.”

Julian Hetherington, Automotive Transformation director, Advanced Propulsion Centre, said the announcement underlines the commitment to support the automotive sector.

“One of the UK’s strategically important industries, as it makes an unprecedented transition towards net zero.

“Through our support, we aim to encourage and de-risk subsequent private investment by demonstrating that these innovative products and technologies work at scale,” he added.

IXR way ahead in progressing workstreams

In addition to the development of a standalone facility suitable to house hydrometallurgical laboratories and a purpose-built magnet recycling demonstration plant in Belfast, the group has been progressing its own workstreams to further advance SerenTech towards commercialisation, including;

Progressing test work and flowsheet development evaluation and modelling for IonicRE’s standalone REE separation and refinery;
Relocation of the pilot plant from Queen’s University Belfast (“QUB”) with planned pilot runs set over the remainder of 2022 to validate process improvements identified in collaboration with IonicRE;
Equipment selection, procurement, construction and operation in H1 2023 of a demonstration plant of the full magnet recycling pilot plant, processing approximately 30 tonnes per annum of magnets, to produce 10 tonnes of individual separated Nd2O3, Pr6O11, Dy2O3 and Tb4O7;
Engineering studies initiated with ANZAPLAN in Germany to revise CAPEX and OPEX estimates from the 2018 techno-economic study;
Progressing commercial relationships on sourcing and recycling spent magnets and swarf; and
Progressing commercial relationships to form downstream collaboratives seeking closed loop domestic supply chains.