- Ionic Rare Earth (IXR) has entered into a term sheet to buy Seren Technologies, a UK private company with a unique rare earth separation technology
- The purchase delivers Ionic an immediate rare earth separation and refining capability to target high purity products
- The recycling technology will provide iconic with a step change in the industry, which is forecast to provide a growing portion of the rare earth elements supply chain in the future
- On the market this morning, Ionic Rare Earths is up 8.54 per cent and trading at 4.5 cents per share
Ionic Rare Earth (IXR) has entered into a term sheet to buy Seren Technologies, a UK private company with a rare earth separation technology.
SerenTech has an exclusive “patent and know-how” licence from Queens University Belfast allowing it to develop and commercialise the technology.
This technology uses multifunctional amide ionic liquids (MAIL) for the separation and refining of rare earth elements (REE).
The purchase delivers Ionic an immediate rare earth separation and refining capability to target high purity products.
Importantly, the most attractive capability is the recycling technology that recycles neodymium magnets via extraction of the individual REE content to produce high purity rare earth oxides products, which is expected to provide a step-change to magnet recycling around the globe.
Neodymium magnets are used in electric motors, wind turbine generators and consumer
electronics.
Managing Director Tim Harrison said the purchase is another step in Ionic’s transition to being a vertically integrated rare earth’s company.
“The IonicRE Board and management are very excited as to the potential this agreement and technology brings to the company,” Mr Harrison said.
“The addition of SerenTech to the group will provide the company with additional capability for rare earth separation, to individual rare earth elements refined to high purity oxides, which will further advance the company’s plan to unlock additional value from the unique critical and heavy rare earth basket to be produced at Makuutu.”
Mr Harrison said the recycling of these magnets is likely to become increasingly important as the “lag on project development, capital investment and ramping up of capital intensive hard rock rare earth projects becomes evident.
He said some estimates forecast “up to 25 per cent of the magnet rare earth supply could be from recycling by the end of this decade”.
Notably, Shanghai Metals Market forecast these magnets and swarf is likely to be the largest growth of neodymium supply from 2021 to 2025.
On the market this morning, Ionic Rare Earths was up 8.54 per cent and is trading at 4.5 cents per share at 10:47 am AEDT.