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ADU PReVIeW

Makuutu close to becoming

Uganda’s first mine

quity markets may be proving heavy go- “The product from Makutuu is the big grinding and flotation.
Eing for resource developers, but the de- one they are all interested in,” Harrison The intricacies are more pronounced at
velopment course remains good for those said. “The magnet rare earths coming on- the refining stage with hard rock rare earth
companies building projects in key critical line is a story about more than just NdPr concentrates requiring capital-intensive,
minerals. [neodymium and praseodymium]. The wind high-temperature mineral cracking plants,
Ionic Rare Earths Ltd is a prime exam- turbine and EV manufacturers know where while the clay-hosted deposits produce a
ple of a junior finding a disconnect between they can source NdPr, now they are trying mixed rare earth carbonate concentrate
day-to-day market movements and the to better understand where the dysprosium from which extraction is relatively simple.
conversations it is having with end-users. and terbium is coming from because histor- “There is a complexity in the hard rock
The Ionic share price has drifted from a ically those products have come from the space around large hydrometallurgical
high of 8.8c in April to just 3.6c in late June. ionic adsorption clays, 95-98% of which are plants, cracking and the capital required,”
However, when it comes to offtake and fi- in China and Myanmar.” Harrison said. “Lynas has taken time but is
nancing discussions, there is only one in- With China expected to consume all ionic now producing a lot of NdPr but only has
struction coming at Ionic managing director adsorption rare earths production internally a small component of medium and heavy
Tim Harrison. by 2026, the race is on to get alternative rare earths. So, the search is on to find pro-
“Go harder, go faster; that’s the message sources such as Makuutu into develop- jects that can be brought online quickly. Ion-
we are getting from key strategic partners, ment. ic adsorption clays are the focus because
customers and end-users,” Harrison told “We are working with groups on what China has achieved its balance of heavy
Paydirt. “They are all asking how quickly can be brought online and marrying up with rare earths production through them.”
this can be brought on, how we can expe- their demand,” Harrison said. “There is not If it is achievable in theory, Ionic’s job
dite it. There is a lot of interest in the prod- really the supply of dysprosium and terbium is to complete it in practice by developing
uct, from the US, the EU, specific European to satisfy demand from both wind turbines Makuutu.
member states, Japan, India, UK. They are and the EV market, so the challenge for The project – 120km east of the Ugan-
interested across every aspect of the busi- manufacturers is finding the right people dan capital of Kampala – is already well ad-
ness. We don’t have to chase people to with the right projects to facilitate new pro- vanced. An updated resource released in
consider our story.” duction.” May placed the global resource at Makuutu
Ionic plans to meet this demand on three That process needs to occur with alac- at 532mt @ 640 ppm total rare earths oxide
fronts. In the last 18 months it has devel- rity, providing Ionic with another advantage (TREO) with 76% in the indicated category.
oped a rare earths downstream process- over hard rock peers. A scoping study released in April 2021
ing plan and acquired a magnet recycling The clay-hosted deposits are generally showed a NPV of $US321 million with an
business, but at the heart of the customer soft, meaning simple mining with no blast- IRR of 38%, based on a capex of $US89
enthusiasm is the company’s Makuutu rare ing and straightforward processing with million.
earths project in Uganda. Rare earths pro- no milling. In contrast, hard rock projects The new resource has been plugged into
jects have shot to prominence in the last require drill-and-blast and highly selec- the feasibility study, which is due for release
decade for the application in renewable tive mining techniques and a complicated in the September quarter. If that proves
infrastructure and EVs, particularly when flowsheet involving intensive crushing, positive, Harrison expects to lodge a mining
used in magnets. Major economies such
as Japan, Korea, the US, EU and UK are
trying to extricate themselves from a supply
chain which is dominated by China.
Several Western companies have be-
gun to disrupt that dominance via hard
rock sources – with ASX-listed Lynas Rare
Earths Ltd the most accomplished – but
these projects produce largely light rare
earths such as neodymium and praseo-
dymium. To date, there have been few eco-
nomic discoveries of in-demand medium
and heavy rare earths such as dysprosium,
yttrium and terbium.
Makuutu could represent a solution. Un-
like the hard rock nature of many Western
rare earths projects, Makuutu is an ionic
adsorption clay-hosted deposit with elevat-
ed heavy rare earth content, making it po-
tentially a major source of alternative supply
for these critical minerals.

Some 76% of Makuutu’s 532mt @ 640 ppm TREO resource sits in the indicated category
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