Enhancement of Senior Development Team

RNS Number : 8288M

Rainbow Rare Earths Limited

26 January 2021

 

Rainbow Rare Earths Limited

("Rainbow" or the "Company")

(LSE: RBW)

26 January 2021

Rainbow Enhances Senior Project Development Team

Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris le Roux, as Lead Process Consultant, and Charles Graham, as Lead Project Manager.

Chris is a Process Engineer, with significant experience and an in-depth knowledge of numerous technical processing operations. Having worked in operational management for 15 years, Chris has been responsible for multiple plants and surface operations and has a sound understanding of innovative technology and processes, particularly in the rare earths sector. Chris was the lead process engineer on several projects for Gold Fields and was responsible for the preliminary economic assessment for the Lofdal Rare Earths Project in Namibia and the definitive feasibility study for Peak Resources' Ngualla Rare Earths Project in Tanzania.

Charles has over 20 years of multidisciplinary mining and infrastructure project management experience across Africa. With a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and a proven track record of augmenting project value, Charles has successfully delivered multiple projects from initial feasibility study stages through to execution and final commissioning. Charles managed various Gold Fields' projects, including as project director when he successfully delivered a number of feasibility and options studies to facilitate the company's growth strategy.

Chris and Charles will work closely with Rainbow's Technical Director, Dave Dodd, who has 45 years of unrivalled extractive metallurgy experience covering research and development, metallurgical project development and execution across the majority of minerals and a wide range of geographies.

George Bennett, CEO, said: "We are delighted to welcome Chris and Charles to the team, which, led by our Technical Director Dave Dodd, will help drive Rainbow's long-term growth into a globally significant rare earths producer. With their combined wealth of experience, they will be instrumental in the delivery of our new Phalaborwa Project, in South Africa, as well as the ongoing development of Gakara, in Burundi.

Having achieved success together at MDM Engineering Ltd., I am confident that we have assembled the right team at Rainbow, with the required diversification of skills and experience to optimise the metallurgy, mineralogy, processing and delivery of our exciting projects."

**ENDS**

For further information, please contact

Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd	Company	George Bennett Pete Gardner	[phone]
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP	Broker	Ewan Leggat Charlie Bouverat	[phone]
Flagstaff Strategic and Investor Communications		Tim Thompson Fergus Mellon	[phone] [e-mail]

Notes to Editors:

Rainbow's strategy is to become a globally-significant producer of rare earth metals.  NdPr are vital components of the strongest permanent magnets used for the motors and turbines driving the green technology revolution.  Analysts are predicting demand for magnet rare earth oxides will grow substantially over the coming years, driven by increasing adoption of green technology, pushing the overall market for NdPr into deficit.

The Company's Gakara Project in Burundi, which produces one of the highest-grade concentrates in the world (typically 54% total rare earth oxide ("TREO")) through ongoing trial mining operations, is currently the only African producer of rare earths.  The Gakara basket is weighted heavily towards NdPr, which account for over approximately 19.5% of the contained TREO and 80% of the value of the concentrate.

The Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project, located in South Africa, comprises approximately 35 million tonnes of gypsum resulting from historic phosphate hard rock mining, containing rare earth elements with an estimated average in situ grade of 0.6% TREO, based on previous sampling campaigns, of which 30% comprises high-value NdPr.  The rare earths are contained in chemical form in the gypsum stacks, which is expected to deliver a higher-value rare earth carbonate, with lower operating costs than a typical rare earth mineral project.

 

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