Rainbow Rare Earths advances Uberaba rare earth project in Brazil

Rainbow Rare Earths has initiated a pre-feasibility study for its Uberaba project in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in collaboration with The Mosaic Company. The project focuses on extracting rare earth elements from phosphogypsum waste.

The study, expected to be completed in the second half of 2027, will evaluate the development of an on-site processing plant capable of treating approximately 2.7 million tonnes of phosphogypsum annually over an initial 30-year lifespan. SRK Consulting has been appointed to prepare the project’s maiden JORC-compliant resource estimate.

Rainbow Rare Earths intends to use proprietary technology to produce high-purity separated neodymium-praseodymium oxide and SEG+ mixed rare earth carbonate at 99.5% purity. To support testing, Mosaic is shipping six tonnes of phosphogypsum to Rainbow’s laboratory and pilot plant in South Africa.

A previous economic assessment in March projected the Uberaba project to have a post-tax net present value (NPV10) of US$916 million and a 45% post-tax internal rate of return (IRR), with an estimated average annual EBITDA of US$217 million.