HIGH-VALUE NEW PRODUCTS NOW POSSIBLE
Chief among the benefits are several new products that we have demonstrated the ability to make from ore that we expect to extract from the Elk Creek Project:
>>> Magnetic Rare Earths
As we reported in 2023, our plant showed that our new process can produce at demonstration scale magnetic rare earth products with commercial purities at recovery rates of 92% or better. As anyone with experience in commercial rare earth production will tell you, this is considered a very high rate of recovery. I see it as a testament to both the processing system’s design and to the deep rare earth processing experience of the NioCorp team. Both Scott and Rick Sixberry, our Director of Process Development, spent years producing commercial rare earth products at the Mountain Pass rare earth facility. Scott ran the Mountain Pass facility at one point, and Rick spent 40 years there making rare earth products. Few Americans have the depth and hands-on experience in producing rare earths at commercial scale as Scott and Rick.
The magnetic rare earth oxides we might produce (neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium) are enormously valuable because of their wide use in clean energy technologies such as electric and hybrid vehicles, wind turbines, high-efficiency electric motors, and other applications that save energy and avoid air emissions. Please see the cautionary statements in the End Notes at the conclusion of this review about our prospective rare earth development plans.(i)
In particular, our potential to produce high-purity heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium also sets the Elk Creek Project apart from many other critical minerals plays. Terbium and dysprosium are used in high-strength rare earth permanent magnets that are crucial to the traction motor systems in the majority of electric vehicles today, yet global supply chains for these strategically critical elements are especially precarious today. Nearly all of the world’s dysprosium and terbium is processed in China, and nearly all of the dysprosium and terbium processed in China is mined in war-torn regions of Myanmar. Such critical mineral supply chains represent enormously high risk for nations such as the U.S. that very much need these strategic materials.
TAKEAWAY: Coupled with what might be generated from potential greater production of both niobium and titanium per tonne of mined ore, the potential addition of rare earths could significantly shift the projected product revenue mix of the Elk Creek Project and more evenly distribute revenue across our planned products. That would provide additional risk mitigation to investors. All of this awaits final validation in an updated Feasibility Study and is subject to our ability to obtain sufficient project financing to move the Elk Creek Project to commercial production, but, again, I am anxious to release the details of our expanded planned product offering.
>>> Higher Niobium Recovery with Higher-Purity Niobium Products
Our new and improved recovery process can achieve, at demonstration scale, a 90.7% rate of niobium recovery through the hydrometallurgical process.Overall recovery through the pyrometallurgical production of the commercial product ferroniobium is expected to be 86.7%.Our previous approach to niobium production was able to achieve recovery rates, at demonstration scale, through the hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes of 86.8% and 82.4%, respectively.This points to the likelihood of higher niobium production levels from the same mining tonnage.
What’s more, while we intend, when and if the Elk Creek Project reaches the production stage, to convert the majority of our niobium reserve into commercial ferroniobium, which is used to strengthen steel, our new process can make, at demonstration scale, higher-purity niobium in the form of niobium chloride, which can readily be converted to high-purity niobium oxide (Nb2O5). This product is sold into many different markets, including superalloys, carbides, superconductors, electronic components, ceramics, gas and wind turbines, medical imaging, particle accelerators, space travel, and in the manufacture of high-performance and ultra-safe, ultra-rapid rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles.
TAKEAWAY: While NioCorp has already contracted for sale up to 75% of our production of niobium in the form of ferroniobium to two customers over the first 10 years of production, and the remaining 25% is potentially available for sale as either ferroniobium or niobium oxide, NioCorp is now exploring the potential to secure offtake agreements for niobium oxide in addition to ferroniobium.
