Ucore Updates Commercialization of RapidSX Technology for Rare Earth Separation

Ucore Rare Metals Inc. is pleased to provide an update on the commercialization activities of its RapidSX technology for rare earth separation and purification at IMC's Commercialization and Development Facility in Kingston, Ontario, Canada., as well as the activities of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Innovation Metals Corp.

After completing extensive process and hardware design activities this year, the RapidSX demonstration-scale plant is currently scheduled to begin commissioning in the first quarter of 2022. Following a comprehensive, independent techno-economic study and subsequent design of a commercial-scale rare earth element (REE) separation facility, Ucore and IMC anticipate that RapidSX technology will be ready for engineering at The company's Strategic Metals Complex (SMC) in Alaska by the second quarter of 2022 development program for commercial adoption and implementation, while IMC will launch a revenue-generating licensing model by the end of 2022.

In recent months, Dr. Gareth Hatch and the entire IMC team have worked hard to commercialize RapidSX rare earth separation technology; "We see this technology as a key link in rebuilding the North American rare earth elements supply chain," Ucore Chairman and CEO Pat Ryan, P.Eng. said. "Our belief comes from our actions in supporting and funding IMC's efforts to develop RapidSX and the subsequent deployment to a coordinated program at North America's first modern rare earth separation plant - SMC Alaska - on schedule to produce individual rare earth oxides in the first half of 2024."

Following initial extraction rate tests this summer, the team at Kingston Process Metallurgy (KPM) then completed a series of additional extraction rate tests to further validate the approach taken and to quantify the impact of the underlying phenomena developed using RapidSX columns. These tests utilized a variety of blended REE solutions, including commercially available feedstocks from a US-allied source.

IMC has completed the preliminary design and layout of the components of the RapidSX demonstration plant, as well as the pump and piping network and other required physical hardware. The company is in the final stages of selection and has procured the associated instrumentation and control system components.

The current goal is to complete construction of the demonstration plant in the first quarter of 2022, after which commissioning and operation during the initial test campaign will begin.

In recent months, IMC has made significant progress in the mathematical modeling of the chemical processes that occur during the operation of RapidSX technology. These models will form the basis of proprietary software that will be used on a commercial scale to control RapidSX-based rare earth separation facilities in order to optimize the parameters of the physical hardware platform.

In addition to the ongoing RapidSX development work, IMC is collaborating with researchers at the University of Toronto to develop and evaluate proprietary, cost-effective methods for reducing the amount of yttrium (Y) in heavy metal-rich ('HREE') feedstocks prior to separation using RapidSX. IMC Technical Advisory Board member and Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry and Materials Science and Professor Gisele Azimi, associate professor in the Departments of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering, is overseeing this work.

Y is a lower value rare earth element and reducing the amount of Y in the HREE feedstock prior to the subsequent separation has the potential to reduce operating costs as well as reduce the size of the plant required and therefore capital costs. This work has progressed very well to date and Ucore looks forward to reporting further developments in early 2022.

Ucore is focused on rare and critical metal resources, extraction, beneficiation, and separation technologies with production, growth, and scalability potential. The company hosts 100% of the Bokan-Dotson Ridge rare earth elements project in southeast Alaska, U.S.A. It's vision and plan is to be a leading advanced technology company that provides the mining and mineral extraction industry with first-class metal separation products and services to the mining and mineral extraction industry.

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