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- Monazite concentrate recovered from four planned pits in the Kasiya DFS mine plan,
- TREO basket is approximately seven times higher than the world’s five largest rare earth producers.
- Highest ratios of up to 3.1% DyTb and 17.2% yttrium found near-surface.
- Western supply-chain decoupling has accelerated as DyTb and yttrium are subject to Chinese export controls.
Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM) has received positive outcomes with significant heavy rare earth metallurgical testwork results at its Kasiya rutile-graphite project in Malawi.
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The testwork was conducted on monazite concentrates recovered from four pits in the project’s definitive feasibility study (DFS) mine plan.
MD and CEO, Frank Eagar, said the results confirm the heavy rare earth content of dysprosium (Dy), terbium (Tb) and yttrium, first reported in January, is present in pits scheduled for the early years of production at Kasiya.
Notably, the average total rare earth oxides (TREO) basket ratios are approximately seven times higher than those of the world’s five largest rare earth producers.
Sovereign has found that the heavy rare earth content is highest in the near-surface, which returns DyTb and yttrium ratios within the TREO basket materially above those of the deeper horizon.
“These results confirm the monazite-hosted rare earth content first reported in January is present in pits scheduled for the early years of production at Kasiya,” Mr Eagar said.
“The monazite concentrate contains all four magnetic rare earth elements – neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium – plus highly critical yttrium.
“These elements appear to be recoverable from the current tailings stream of our DFS flowsheet. We are advancing the additional mineralogical and metallurgical work required to quantify the potential economic upside to the DFS.”
Kasiya is already at the DFS stage with a US$2.2 billion pre-tax NPV8, with assessment of the four magnetic rare earth elements plus highly critical yttrium recoverable from the DFS flowsheet as a potential by-product alongside rutile and graphite.
An independent price report for a monazite concentrate has been prepared based on the composition of a 60% TREO basket. Due to the exceptionally high proportion of heavy rare earths within Kasiya’s TREO basket, the independent report has identified the potential for a premium to benchmark monazite prices.
The 2026 forecast base-case price is US$16,000/t (high case US$19K/t), against a benchmark monazite concentrate (54-55% TREO grade) price of approximately US$6,142/t based on the Shanghai Metals Market.
SVM is steady at 63.5¢. Mkt cap $403.4M.
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