Modern Mining September 2022

MINING News

Rainbow Rare Earths releases report on Phalaborwa flow sheet elements from phosphogypsum, which has historically proven to be challenging. Compared to the ini t ial process

London-listed Rainbow Rare Earths has released an updated technical report on the processing flowsheet to extract rare earth elements from the phosphogyp sum stacks at the company’s Phalaborwa Project in South Africa. The flowsheet has been developed in parallel with K-Technologies, USA (K-Tech) and represents a breakthrough in allowing for the economic extraction of rare earth

Work is now ongoing to finalise the Phalaborwa PEA, which is expected to be completed at the end of September/early October 2022, the company said. Rainbow and K-Tech anticipate the potential for wider application of this innovative processing flowsheet than solely the Phalaborwa Project. As a result, Rainbow and K-Tech are jointly applying for international patents. Rainbow is in the process of identifying global projects where the technology could be used to unlock further sources of rare earths from phosphogypsum. Rainbow Rare Earths CEO, George Bennett, commented: “Working alongside our partners at K-Tech we have continually seen opportunities for refinement and opti misation as the flowsheet has developed. We anticipate that this process will continue as we progress from the PEA to PFS and BFS at Phalaborwa, alongside test work at other phosphogypsum opportunities, giving scope for both capital and operating cost reductions from the Phalaborwa PEA. We believe that this work further demonstrates Rainbow’s ability to overcome the histori cal technical, environmental, and economic challenges related to extracting rare earths from phosphogypsum, enabling us to unlock a valuable, near-term source of permanent magnetic metals required so urgently to drive the global green energy revolution.” 

ing opt ions considered when work commenced, a number of key enhance ments have been made, resulting in significant anticipated capital and operating cost savings for the Phalaborwa Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), which is cur rently being finalised.

Rainbow Rare Earths has released an updated technical report.

Barrick partners to launch 10X business accelerator programme

Gold miner Barrick Lumwana, in collaboration with the Accelerated Growth for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Zambia (AGS) Programme and the Women’s Entrepreneurship Access Center (WEAC), officially launched the 10X Business Accelerator Programme at the Lumwana Premier Resort in Manyama, Kalumbila.

The Business Accelerator Programme, to be implemented by WEAC, aims to build business capacity for local contractors in Barrick’s mining supply chain and to support them in effecting their growth plans, diversifying their markets to become sustainable beyond the mine’s operations. Barrick’s 10X Business Accelerator Programme is further aimed at enabling the SMEs to better position themselves for sustainable growth, including the capacity to bid for, and service larger supply tenders, the company said. According to Barrick, a rigorous selection criterion was used and informed by the findings from a baseline survey and an Extreme Build a Business Workshop assessment. The first 15 companies were then selected to participate in the ‘Mentor Driven Business’ Business Accelerator Programme. Minister of small and medium enterprises development Elias Mubanga, launched the programme and said that the Barrick 10X Business Accelerator Programme, as a private sector local supplier initiative, had the potential to stimulate local economic growth, given the significance of the mining sector in the economy and its impact on other sub sectors. 

Barrick’s Business Accelerator Programme aims to enable SMEs to better position themselves for sustainable growth.

4  MODERN MINING  September 2022