Niocorp Developments Ltd (NB)

[walterc]

Refining is a more generic term for the process of converting ore into separated oxides.  Separation is a narrower term for the chemical process of taking REE concentrate and separating and purifying the individual REEs.  There are other steps that one could say are not technically separation, such as conversion of ore to concentrate and conversion of separated REEs into their oxide form, that one could lump into the "refining" bucket and which are not technically seperation.


Some producers, like us, will skip the conversion of ore to concentrate, as we take processed ore and move it directly to a hydromet process.


So, separation can be seen as one step in the overall refining process, I suppose.  But the terms are often used interchangeably.


If you look at our process flow sheet, you could say that this process is one that refines and produces separated REE oxides from ore, and which includes more steps than SX (solvent extraction) which does the actual separation of each REE from the others.