Boring engineering stuff, Confident or Desperate?
Good Evening people,
I had a so-so day. I thought that the feet were finally getting better after the beating that I gave them walking around Scotland's cobblestone streets. I moved wrong and the pain just shot through my foot up into my shin.
Oh well, back to Ucore.
I had a little time this afternoon to go over the last PR. Remember a while back that Ucore had a very long dry spell of PRs while they did boring engineering stuff. Not with the main separation of REEs but with the side system that make it more efficient. I have copyed the parts of the last PR to show you all.
Parallel with a dedicated technical team, the CDF operates seven days per week, serving multiple purposes, requiring dedicated shift and activity schedules, namely:
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the processing of mixed rare earth oxide ("MREO") and carbonate ("MREC") feedstocks over thousands of runtime hours to further the Company's two government demonstration projects;
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to develop and demonstrate an array of ancillary processing systems with the deployment of the RapidSX™ technology platform in a rigorous production environment; and
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conduct product qualification work to meet prospective Western world partners' commercial interests and associated specifications.
Figure 1 - Ucore's 52-stage RapidSX™ Commercial Demo Plant in Kingston, Ontario
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RapidSX™ Operations
The Company schedules its 52-stage RapidSX™ Demonstration Plant ("Demo Plant") to operate 120 hours per week processing tonnes of feedstock in a simulated commercial environment. The completely automated system incorporates approximately 600 feedback sensors, which include monitoring acidity levels (pH), aqueous and organic interface levels, tank levels, and system pressures and flow rates, all of which are controlled by multiple programmable logic controllers ("PLCs") and a single operator at a central control station.
Since the Demo Plant was commissioned in late 2023, through a dedicated program of continuous improvement, the Ucore team has developed significant enhancements to the mechanical and control systems that deliver and remove the organic and aqueous solutions to each RapidSX™ stage. This is an essential component of the final "copy and paste" knowledge transfer process from the CDF to the SMC to ensure a robust and proven technology platform delivering best-in-class competitive processing versus that of the People's Republic of China.
Full Scope Operations
The purpose of the CDF is the demonstration of the entire rare earth refining flowsheet, which extends well beyond the separation of REEs utilizing the RapidSX™ system. The Company has been engaged in the development and demonstration of the associated operations, including:
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design and testing of an optimized Cerium depletion process;
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direct leaching of heavy MREO and light MREC, eliminating the pre-leaching calcining step traditionally required in the processing of MRECs;
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development of a dedicated yttrium removal process;
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design and installation of a distillation system for the concentration of produced rare earth chlorides and the recovery and recycling of hydrochloric acid;
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design and installation of a neutralization system to recycle and manage the generated rare earth chloride solutions; and
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development of a batch-level process for light and heavy rare earth oxide production.
Now Pip and me have been having this debate. He thinks that RSX does not work as well as it is said to be and that Management is millking us for as long as they can. Based on nothing be Ucore history of the things that Ucore had to do just to stay afloat and in business.
Me I think that Ucore playing it safe and is taking as long as it take to get all their ducks in a row and by doing that they get more data and that with more data they can make it work better.
So the question is, is Ucore confident because they know that RSX works well and more data only makes it better or is Ucore talking big because they are desperate?
Good Night All
Dragon