Response from MarkThanks for reaching out Alicia... I thought the last PR was a timely response to your legal questions. We are ahead on all fronts with many interesting developments yet to come.
As you know we have a technical services agreement with IMC. They have a pilot plant that has been operating since 2016:
Development of the RapidSX™ Process
In 2015, IMC began work to improve the conventional SX process, through its participation in a $1.7M second phase of the ARL-funded development program. The company evaluated a number of avenues before focusing on a column-based approach, dubbed the RapidSX™ process.
Starting initially at the bench scale, the RapidSX approach was benchmarked against the conventional SX process previously tested by IMC and PRO. With similar flow rates, the system saw a reduction in the number of required processing steps by over 85% and a reduced time to equilibrium by over 85%. The system was used to successfully produce key REEs from both Chinese and non-Chinese-originated concentrates, with commercial-grade purities.
In early 2016 work began on a 10-column pilot-scale RapidSX system, capable of producing up to 2-3 tonnes of REEs / month. The system was used to separate REEs from non-Chinese concentrates, with purities obtained of 99.5-99.97% total REEs.