Nasdaq-listed Critical Metals Corporation has released a study on its proposed 50:50 joint venture rare earths refinery with State-owned Romanian entity Fabrica de Prelucrare a Concentratelor de Uraniu, finding it will require capital expenditure of $1.85-billion.
The proposed refinery is being designed to process up to 100 000 t/y of eudialyte concentrate feed and, based on current modelling, produce about 27 943 t/y of rare earth and critical metal products in the form of chloride salts and other ultra-pure products.
The expected byproducts include 25 670 t/y of high purity silicon dioxide, or silica, powder. Revenue from the silica byproduct production alone can reach $600-million a year.
Critical Metals says the silicate recovery system will contribute value in revenue and avoided acid costs, potentially transforming a conventional waste stream into a significant revenue contributor.
The refinery’s total revenue is expected to be $2.2-billion a year before operating costs, taxes and capital recovery.
Critical Metals finds the refinery to have a net present value of $4.5-billion, an internal rate of return of 55% and a projected payback period of two years.
The company says the proposed refinery will use a multistage, mixed-acid leach process at elevated temperatures, followed by cascading recovery steps designed to produce high-purity rare earth salts, metals and critical metal salts for advanced industrial, aerospace, technology and defence applications.
A key feature of the proposed process is the recovery of materials that would traditionally report to tailings, including silica and potentially alumina, iron and copper. Current process modelling targets a tailings stream of about 1% of feed tonnage, supporting the company’s objective of developing a lower-waste processing route.
The refinery can also produce between 50 t and 70 t of high-purity hafnium every year during the first five years, together with 20 t to 30 t of hafnium chloride.
Critical Metals is considering multiple shipping and rail routes for the movement of concentrate from the Tanbreez rare earths project, in Greenland, to the proposed refinery location in Romania. If developed as currently contemplated, the refinery has the potential to become a significant Western supplier of rare earths and critical metals.
“This represents a significant evolution in the Tanbreez value proposition and reinforces our commitment to a true mine-to-metals strategy. By combining Tanbreez’s exceptional eudialyte resource with advanced processing in Romania, we have the potential to capture substantially more value from every ton of material while producing the high-purity rare earths and critical metals that Western markets increasingly require,” says Critical Metals executive chairperson and CEO Tony Sage.
Importantly, he adds, the company’s proposed process is designed to recover valuable by-products such as high-purity silica rather than treating them as waste, potentially improving both the economic and environmental profile of the operation.
“We believe this integrated approach has the potential to establish Critical Metals as an important non-Chinese supplier of critical materials to the European and US markets, with Tanbreez providing the resource foundation and the proposed Romanian refinery delivering the downstream value.”
