London, February 5th (Argus) - Frontier Rare Earths, headquartered in Luxembourg, announced today that it has received a $20 million investment from the South African Industrial Development Corporation (IDS) and has signed a purchase agreement with France's Carester. It has also begun the final feasibility study for its South African magnet-grade rare earth and battery-grade manganese projects.
This small mining company is developing the Zandkopsdrift project in South Africa. The project's production capacity over the first 25 years is approximately 3,038 tons per year of oxidized praseodymium-neodymium, 114 tons per year of oxidized dysprosium, and 25 tons per year of oxidized terbium.
The company will also produce battery-grade manganese as a by-product. The company stated that the manganese revenue can cover 90% of the cost of rare earth production.
Frontier aims to start production in 2030 after the project obtains full licensing and infrastructure planning.
Frontier will use the investment from the national-funded South African Industrial Development Corporation to fund the feasibility study and company development activities. The South African Industrial Development Corporation has the option to purchase up to 10% of the output at market prices for downstream processing in South Africa.
Rian Coetzee, the director of the industry planning and project development department of the South African Industrial Development Corporation, said that this investment supports the project to advance South Africa's industrialization and key mineral strategy.
According to the "Critical Raw Materials Act", the EU has designated Zandkopsdrift as a strategic project.
Frontier also signed a strategic technology supply and purchase agreement with Carester today. Frontier will use Carester's rare earth solvent extraction technology at Zandkopsdrift to produce high-purity praseodymium-neodymium oxides and mixed heavy rare earth carbonate salts.
Carester will sign a 7-year purchase agreement and will process the mixed heavy rare earth carbonate salts at its factory in France.
