Montreal-based Geomega Resources has scaled up the daily throughput rate of its proposed rare-earth element (REE) recycling plant and published a new capital expenditure (capex) estimate.

The original design of the demonstration plant presented was based on an initial throughput capacity of 1 t/d (2 000 ℓ batches), which would then require some additional investments to reach 1.5 t/d. The process had originally been designed on a 24-hour operation.

Owing to economy of scale, the current design has been scaled up to use 5 000 ℓ reactors and operate on a single work shift of eight to ten hours. As a result of the sizing increase and process optimisation, the demonstration plant could reach a throughput capacity of 1.5 t a shift, which Geomega says is a 50% increase over the initial design.

The increase of the equipment sizing and the associated throughput capacity increased the capex estimate from the original C$2-million to C$2.6-million.

The new capex estimation follows the front end engineering design study, which is intended to serve as the foundation for launching the engineering, procurement, construction and management contract to build the plant.

The study also confirmed that the in-situ recovery (ISR) process that was developed by Innord, a private subsidiary of Geomega, is technically feasible and uses off the shelf equipment thereby making it easier to scale up.

“The modified design, with larger throughput capacity, provides not only an immediate reduction in the load of capital expenditures relative to annual production, but also opens the door to expansion in the future without having to build a second plant in the coming years,” commented Geomega and Innord president and CEO Kiril Mugerman.

The ISR process recycles rare earths with a focus on the permanent magnet industry and produces four high-demand REEs, including neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium.

Geomega believes there will be significant growth in primary magnet waste and end-of-life material over the coming years.

Mugerman points out that technology giant Apple is starting to use recycled rare earths in its newest models and the European Union is investing heavily in rare earths recycling through universities.

“We believe Geomega to be strategically positioned to be at the forefront of rare earths recycling with initial production from the demonstration plant targeted for 2020.”

The increased throughput capacity also provides an opportunity to process other feed materials besides rare earth magnets.