Critical North American Rare Earths Supply Chain Ⅳ: RapidSX Tech for Alaska SMC

In the critical North American rare earths supply chain, Alaska SMC will be equipped with RapidSX, a patented technology developed by Ucore's subsidiary Innovation Metals Corp. to extract pure rare earth oxides from midstream products such as the mixed rare earth carbonates that will be produced at Vital's Saskatoon facility.

RapidSX is not so much a new technology as it is a huge upgrade to the traditional solvent extraction technique that has been the standard for separating rare earths for over 40 years. Although effective, conventional solvent extraction is a lengthy process, sometimes requiring hundreds of stages to extract all the rare earths from a solution containing a well-known chain of elements.

Utilizing an innovative columnar platform developed by Gareth Hatch and his team at Innovation Metals, RapidSX is faster, more compact, and more environmentally friendly than these traditional solvent extraction techniques that are popular in China.

Hatch and his team are advancing the technology commercially at Innovation Metals' demonstration plant in Ontario. a small sample of mixed rare earth carbonates from Vital by the end of the year will give the Innovation Metals team the opportunity to test RapidSX with a possible initial feedstock from Alaska SMC.

"Once the IMC team has completed the commercialization steps currently underway, we will actually take the Vital material and bring it to the plant as part of the engineering process to develop the Alaska SMC," Schrider told Mining News.

A second one-metric ton sample of material from Vital's Saskatoon facility is planned to be delivered to Ucore in the second half of 2022, which will allow for more robust testing before we establish the RapidSX loop in Alaska.

Ucore intends to begin commissioning the Alaska SMC by the end of 2023 and begin production of individual rare earth oxides in early 2024. The separation plant is expected to begin with a total rare earth oxide separation and purification capacity of 2,000 metric tons per year, expanding to 5,000 metric tons per year by 2026.

This coincides with Vital's plans to expand North American production at its rare earth mines in the Northwest Territories and its midstream rare earths production facility in Saskatchewan.

Vital Metals is Canada’s first and North America’s second rare earths producer, with production underway at their Nechalacho mine in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Vital aims to produce a minimum 5,000 tonnes of contained rare earth oxides at Nechalacho by 2025. Atkins said, "We look forward to further developing our relationship with Ucore to finalize the offtake agreement and begin supplying feedstock to Alaska SMC."