 Today I have the distinct pleasure of speaking with two of the biggest brains in North America on the rare earth supply chain We're now in part three and we're going straight into Separation taking the concentrate to oxides. So who in North America Jack can currently provide this service? No one Okay, Alistair. Is it true? No one? MP materials has a plant installed in Mountain Pass but it never really got into production and since Molly Corp went bankrupt that plant has not been running other than that There's a softball facility in Texas and that's about it There are a number of companies looking at novel techniques in North America So we've just just discovered one of the first problems in the supply chain model We're gonna need someone who's doing separation. So I just want to back you up that one more step Can you explain why we need this process Jack? Do you want to take a run at this first? Well, we don't the what happens when you extract the rare earths from an aura as you get a mixture of Rare earths and and other things that were in the ore that come out in the extract extract Which is usually an acid so the first thing you have to do is is make a pregnant leach solution and what that means is that you you put the Minerals the metal values in the minerals into solution Then you you separate out those things which are not rare earths or rare earth sweats you don't really want for for example, sirium and Then that solution which is normally today a chloride hydrochloric acid extract Goes into a separation system which in the US has only ever been Solving extraction for the light wear earths And of course Alistair, I'm sure you want to add a few notes on this Yeah, Jack is right the traditional method is Using a hydrochloric acid there is as I said earlier other companies looking at novel ways So that you can try and find a more environmentally friendly process To tackle this and compete with the Chinese, you know the benchmark Is the Chinese separation cost which is about $2.50 to $3 a kilogram Okay, so let's then jump into the fourth level stage in the supply chain which is Metalization the oxides through chemical processing are then turned into metals. Is that correct? Do I have that correct Alistair? Yes, and for the bag for the magnet industry applications Yes, okay. Well, we're talking about the four the four magnet materials presently So do you want to start with this Alistair and explain who in North America provides a service? There is a plant in Tolson, Arizona that used to belong to Molly Corp and I think prior to that Jack would know but I think it was Japanese Shinetsu joint venture Yeah, it sent local pardon me It has the capability of doing it but the last information I got was that there is No production of rare earth metals at that facility right now. So outside of that Really, there is all of that capability has been lost in the US Okay, so this is a problem in the chain to or Jack. Can you correct Alistair's? understanding There is no metal making capability or capacity in the United States at this point or or in Canada's horizontal Is it not my understanding? However, that Linus is coming here with blue line to set up such a facility That's not my my understanding is that Linus has said they're going to Build a separation facility in Texas. I didn't hear a word about metals. I would agree Yeah, it's totally solely focused on the separation of everything from Sumerian on To Lutitium Okay, so We're gonna get back to that because we want our audience to understand where that is in the food chain So then number five we have The when we're actually turn the metals into alloys, would you like to explain what that is Jack? Yes, the the the rare earth metals by themselves Are not made into magnets that what what was discovered was that certain alloys of rare earths Neodymium iron and boron Sumerian and cobalt for example most common our form The strongest magnets known for their weight and size Now the problem is these alloys are air sensitive. So you can't just Make big blocks of them and set them in a warehouse and wait for something to happen so the way it's done and They're also not so easy to hold together the way it's done is they are made in furnaces called spin cast furnaces and Literally the metal is agitated and and cast out to to solidify as fast as possible and That's cast out as a stream a ribbon so to speak then those those alloys are Decrepitated that means they're put into hydrogen where they disintegrate into literally atomic-sized particles which are chemical hydrides They're air stable then those materials are Put into form that They're used in a powder metallurgical operation You you put them into a die and you press them under heat and they center together And they give up the hydrogen at the same time that dies in a inner atmosphere of nitrogen Then you coat the material with nickel so that the air can't get at it because it's still air sensitive Then you magnetize it so remember none of these things are magnetic until the alloy is for their they're magnetized after its form otherwise, you couldn't make them because as I recall a friend of mine was in charge of building a 10 ton He hooked on me weren't born magnet In in in the US a few years ago and I said how'd you do he said it was really a bear because they had to Assemble it in sections send it to the end user site and magnetize it on site because if they'd ever made a magnet We're near to remember magnet that big it would of course attached itself to the rail car and never and the car wouldn't move because The the magnet would have been blocking it to the rails. So it's not so easy to do this stuff There's a lot of in industrial But I was going to say trickery industrial skill in in this And people aren't telling each other how they make these magnets. There's lots and lots of variations on the magnets For example neodymium iron boron magnets are alloyed with this prosium and terbium to give them other properties But how people do that is usually their own business And so this is not something you can do out of a book. I just want to make a point here the United States Department of Defense thinks you can take a book off a shelf And simply we create a rare permanent magnet industry. Nothing could be farther from the truth Okay, alistair. I am absolutely certain you have some thoughts on this matter Yeah, uh, well jack I think is covered extremely well. There is a small niche market That we haven't talked about and that's samarium cobalt which jack raised and there is actually production in the u.s of samarium cobalt magnets but it's a Very very small percentage of the total rarest magnet space Those tend to go into more high temperature applications and some military applications, but When it comes to neodymium iron boron all of that knowledge basically left with magna quench when they went to, uh, china Of course, we still have to get on we still have to get to the point about how these alloys are turned to magnets So on this note, I'd like to thank you both. Thank you alistair and thank you jack Welcome welcome