Rare Earth Processor Ranking Discussion

[John]

https://rareearthexchanges.com/news...lly-making-magnet-grade-oxides-outside-china/

So REEx has done analysis of all the companies that are currently processing RE to oxide and those who are planning to process to oxide. At this stage it will not be publically released yet. But watch this space. It is interesting reading.

Some points to note:
- Processing is actually the bottleneck in rare earth supply chain.
- There are large issues with radiation byproducts.
- There are very few ex-China processors globally
- There is lots of hype around who is going to be able to scale up to process to an oxide (ie lots of plans...but not much of the actual work/permitting/flowsheet/FEED work done)

Happy to discuss further here

 

[Theeaglehaslanded]

Hi John.

Congrats on your new forum and website. I hope your following grows along with the sector in the coming years.

What is your opinion on ASM and it's KMP (Korean Metals Plant) and purposed AMP (American Metals Plant).

The CEO has touted their proprietary Heavy RE technology with the first commercial sale of 2Kg recently to VAC, along with ongoing NdPr alloy sales.

Apparently the tech they use is cleaner, greener, with lower energy consumption also.

Are these guys onto something here, or are the a very small fish in a very big sea?

If they secure US DOD grant funding for the AMP, which is apparently a shoe in, these guys will be in the middle of a purposed new manufacturing hub in the US. They've been reviewing sites and locations for the AMP recently, which are located close to some of their contracted associates like USARE. Seems very promising, keen on any insights you might have ?

There's also the Dubbo project, which I'll raise on the other threads.


Thanks

 

[John]

ASM is interesting but still a small player. The Korean Metals Plant has shown proof-of-concept with small alloy sales, and their cleaner/lower-energy metallisation tech could appeal to Western customers if it scales. The bigger swing is the proposed US plant – if DoD funding lands, it would place ASM inside a new US rare earth hub, which is strategically huge. Right now though, volumes are tiny and scale-up risk is real.

Dubbo is the long-term anchor, but for now they’re more a high-potential niche story than a sector heavyweight.

Interesting how much ASM is promoting their talks in the USA. I know of lots of other Australian companies in the USA talking to similar USA parties and they don't say anything.

Interesting times!

Who will be the winners and losers? I think the next 2-3 months will give us a pretty good indication of what will happen.