• Grant award of £1.72 million (approximately A$2.9 million) from the UK Government Advanced Propulsion Centre (“APC”) to develop a demonstration scale magnet recycling plant
• APC is supporting the UK Government deliver its aspiration for net-zero carbon across the automotive industry
• New facility secured in Belfast, UK, will house magnet recycling technology at demonstration scale to secure critical rare earth metals for renewable energy applications and reduce sovereign risk
• The demonstration scale plant will produce separated individual high purity rare earth oxides (“REO”) from recycling waste magnets and swarf, suitable for high specification magnets in the EV and offshore wind sectors

The Board of Ionic Rare Earths Limited (“IonicRE” or “The Company”) (ASX: IXR) is pleased to announce the grant of £1.72 million (approximately A$2.9 million) from the UK Government Advanced Propulsion Centre (“APC”) to Seren Technologies (“SerenTech”), a 100% owned subsidiary of IonicRE, based in Belfast, UK. IonicRE completed the acquisition of SerenTech on 22 April 2022.

The APC is a non-profit organisation that facilitates funding to UK based research and development projects developing low-carbon emission powertrain technologies, funded by UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”) and managed by Innovate UK.

SerenTech applied for the grant under the Innovate UK Automotive Transformation Fund Scale up Readiness Validation (“SuRV”) program to develop a demonstration scale magnet recycling plant, a significant step towards securing the UK supply of critical rare earth metals for Electric Vehicle (“EV”) manufacture. The magnet REO products are also crucial for facilitating offshore wind farm development.

The grant offering is part of the 1130: SuRV competition and will now accelerate activity at SerenTech.

The SuRV competition targeted supporting businesses by part-funding the validation of products and their associated processes, as ready for scale-up, with a particular focus on producing physical samples, which can be used to validate a pilot production process. The SuRV competition allocated  £25 million to validate readiness for scale-up of low-carbon technology and processes. Up to £2 million in grant funding was available for individual projects – with SerenTech receiving £1.72 million of this pool.

Commenting on the successful application and award, Mr Tim Harrison, IonicRE’s Managing Director;

“This is a tremendous endorsement from the UK Government and the APC on the potential for scaling our technology offering from SerenTech. This grant validates the significance of magnet recycling in a tight supply market as well as pointing to the additional value for IonicRE shareholders in the longer-term.”

“Since IonicRE’s acquisition of SerenTech earlier this year, the team has been busy setting a platform to accelerate from the pilot scale studies at Queens University Belfast, and now relocation to a new commercial facility in Belfast, where a demonstration scale 30 tonne per annum magnet recycling circuit can be housed. The scale of the proposed demonstration plant will produce sufficient quantities of separated REOs for further product development with industry partners.”

“Magnet recycling already represents approximately 25% of the current processed magnet REO production globally, which is dominated by China.”

“In developing this technology, IonicRE is positioning itself as a vertically integrated rare earth participant developing and delivering a circular rare earth business plan. We expect that the importance of a circular rare earth economy will increase dramatically over the next few years as the energy transition away from carbon gathers more momentum, and desire from governments to develop alternative secure supply chains amplifies.”

Mr Ian Constance, CEO, Advanced Propulsion Centre, commented:

“I am pleased that this project has been successfully funded, sharing part of £25 million from our Scale-Up Readiness Validation competition. With this support, the APC aims to increase confidence in large-scale manufacturing investments to build electrified supply chains in the UK. It is vital, in the transition to net zero, that the automotive sector seizes the opportunity to grow the industry, create or safeguard jobs and build on the expertise anchored here in the UK.” 

Julian Hetherington, Automotive Transformation Director, Advanced Propulsion Centre, commented:

“This announcement underlines the commitment to support the automotive sector, one of the UK’s strategically important industries, as it makes an unprecedented transition towards net zero. I am proud of the role the Automotive Transformation Fund is playing in unlocking opportunities for investment, and the projects chosen here all have real potential to scale-up to something significant. Through our support, we aim to encourage and de-risk subsequent private investment by demonstrating that these innovative products and technologies work at scale.”#

In addition to the development of a standalone facility suitable to house hydrometallurgical laboratories and a purpose-built magnet recycling demonstration plant in Belfast, the group has been progressing workstreams to further advance SerenTech towards commercialisation, including;

1. Progressing test work and flowsheet development evaluation and modelling for IonicRE’s standalone REE separation and refinery;
2. Relocation of the pilot plant from Queen’s University Belfast (“QUB”) with planned pilot runs set over the remainder of 2022 to validate process improvements identified in collaboration with IonicRE;
3. Equipment selection, procurement, construction and operation in H1 2023 of a demonstration plant of the full magnet recycling pilot plant, processing approximately 30 tonnes per annum of magnets, to produce 10 tonnes of individual separated Nd₂O₃, Pr₆O₁₁, Dy₂O₃ and Tb₄O₇;
4. Engineering studies initiated with ANZAPLAN in Germany to revise CAPEX and OPEX estimates from the 2018 techno-economic study;
5. Progressing commercial relationships on sourcing and recycling spent magnets and swarf; and

Progressing commercial relationships to form downstream collaboratives seeking closed loop domestic supply chains.