Rainbow Rare Earths has announced its preliminary results for the year ended 30 June 2025 (FY2025), highlighting significant technical, strategic, and operational progress as it positions itself as a leading, responsible supplier of critical rare earth elements (REE).

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Highlights

• Rare earth elements are vital to global economic resilience and national security. China’s export controls in April 2025, followed by further tightening in October, have accelerated efforts by Western nations to secure independent and sustainable supplies of these critical minerals.
• Rainbow is at the forefront of this transition, with its Phalaborwa Project in South Africa recognised as a near-term, strategic source of both light and heavy rare earths essential to the green energy transition, defence, and advanced technologies.
• The project benefits from strong international backing, including a US$50 million equity commitment from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) through TechMet Limited, as well as support from Ecora Resources PLC, which selected Phalaborwa as its first REE royalty investment.
• Rainbow’s world-class laboratory in Johannesburg—one of Africa’s most sophisticated mineral analysis facilities—is refining a process to extract REEs from phosphogypsum, a by-product of phosphate production. This innovation transforms legacy waste into valuable critical materials, delivering major environmental and social benefits.
• As a chemical processing operation requiring no mining, hauling, or stockpiling, Phalaborwa is positioned at the lowest end of the global cost curve, with the potential to become one of the highest-margin REE projects in development today.
• The company has successfully produced a high-purity mixed rare earth product (MREP) that exceeds typical industry standards. An evaluation is underway to identify the optimal route for separation into NdPr oxide and a SEG+ concentrate containing medium and heavy rare earths.
• A pilot-scale plant will now be run to validate updated flowsheet parameters and demonstrate expected capital and operating cost savings from ongoing trade-off studies.
• The Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for Phalaborwa is scheduled for completion in 2026, with project financing and permitting to proceed in parallel. Construction is expected to commence in 2027.
• In Brazil, Rainbow is progressing the Uberaba Project in partnership with The Mosaic Company, with an Economic Assessment (EA) underway to replicate Phalaborwa’s model on a potentially larger scale.
• Longer term, Rainbow aims to deploy its phosphogypsum-to-REE technology globally, creating a scalable and sustainable business. The company is currently evaluating strategic partnerships in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Canada, as well as other international opportunities.
• Responsible production is central to Rainbow’s strategy, with the company embedding strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices to ensure ethical and transparent REE supply for the global market.

Chief Executive Officer, George Bennett said 2025 has been a transformative year for Rainbow Rare Earths, with major technical breakthroughs positioning the Phalaborwa project among the world’s lowest-cost rare earth producers. We successfully achieved economic recovery of magnet rare earths from phosphogypsum—something others have attempted unsuccessfully for decades—fundamentally de-risking the project.

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“Our Interim Economic Study (December 2024) confirmed robust project economics, and ongoing trade-off studies aim to further reduce capital and operating costs. Using continuous ion exchange (CIX) technology, we produced a high-purity mixed rare earth product (MREP) averaging over 55% TREO, among the highest globally. A new cerium depletion step has further enhanced value by reducing separation costs,” said Bennett.

“Our Johannesburg laboratory, equipped with Africa’s first ICP-MS facility, has accelerated optimisation work and is preparing for pilot-scale validation. The upcoming Definitive Feasibility Study, expected in 2026, will incorporate these optimisations to ensure Phalaborwa remains at the bottom of the global cost curve.

“Our success at Phalaborwa provides a model for our Uberaba project in Brazil and potential future partnerships in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Canada. With growing offtake interest, Rainbow is poised to become a leading supplier of responsibly sourced rare earths.”