Rainbow Rare Earths (Rainbow) CEO George Bennett today stressed once again the critical strategic importance of the company’s Phalaborwa project given the push by Western and aligned governments to find rare earth supply sources which are not controlled by China.
Rainbow has negotiated a proposed $50m investment in the Phalaborwa plant from the United States International Development Corporation (the DFC) through strategic partner TechMet Limited which is an investment company chaired by Brian Menell.
Responding to questions at an investor presentation today Bennett flatly ruled out any suggestion of technical co-operation with the Chinese.
He commented, “we see ourselves as part of the independent supply chain and one of the conditions of the $50m equity financing from the DFC is that we only support western supply chain. So that means South Korea, Japan, Western Europe, Canada, America and so forth. “
Bennett commented that geopolitical pressure was “ratcheting up” over the supply of rare earths with China exerting export controls on graphite, gallium, germanium, antimony and rare earths processing technology.
He pointed out Western governments were hitting back with the United States retaliating in May through tariffs on Chinese-made REPM (rare earth permanent magnets) while the EU and the US had slapped tariffs on Chinese-made electrical vehicles.
Bennett said there was an urgent need to develop diverse and ethical sources of supply given the situation in which rare earth element (REE) supply was 70% dominated by China which, specifically, controlled 90% of “heavy REE” which consisted of dysprosium and terbium. In addition, China controlled some 90% of “separated rare earth oxide” supply.
Rare earths are widely used in magnets in consumer electronics and industrial applications as well as in defence industry applications. A huge growth in demand is being forecast from the growing requirements for electric vehicles and wind turbines.
Bennett said there could be additional “exponential” growth in demand for rare earths from two new, developing uses in robotics and “advanced air mobility” which involved commercial drones, air taxis, and electrical vertical take-off and landing aircraft.
