Innovation Metals Corp. (IMC) has announced the completion by Genivar, Inc., the company’s engineering consultants, of a set of process flow diagrams (PFDs) for the extraction and purification stages of IMC’s future critical rare-earth element (REE) separation facility, to be located in Bécancour, Quebec.
Genivar worked closely on this project with IMC’s China-based REE separation consultants, an engineering group with extensive real-world expertise in REE separation facility design and operation. This work was undertaken as part of the prefeasibility study being conducted by Genivar for IMC.
Starting with a mixed REE carbonate feedstock, produced by blending individual feedstock received from various future REE producers, the process starts with an acid-leaching phase, to solubilize the REEs, followed by a cascade of separation stages based on solvent-extraction techniques. The result will be the formation of 13 distinct high-purity rare-earth chloride products.
“This unique collaborative effort to develop the PFDs and associated mass-balance calculations for our Facility is ongoing,” said Gareth Hatch, President of IMC, “and is a critical part of IMC’s strategy for the production of separated REEs in Quebec. Our two consulting groups are working closely together on the completion of the process-design work for the subsequent precipitation and calcination stages of the process to produce the final REE products.”
Once completed, the full set of PFDs will be tested first at the bench scale, and subsequently in a pilot plant, to be constructed and operated in Quebec.
“Our announcement today marks an inflection point for the rare-earth industry outside of China,” said Patrick Wong, CEO of IMC. “IMC is now one of very few companies outside of China with detailed quantitative designs for a critical REE separation plant. It will be the first centralized Facility of its kind available to future producers of critical REEs, for the development of marketable products by low-cost toll processing, and where end users can own separation capacity.”
About Innovation Metals Corp.
Innovation Metals Corp. (IMC) is a private Canadian-based company founded in 2011. IMC’s goal is to alleviate the bottleneck that has formed in the rare-earth supply chain, through the creation of the world’s first independent, centralized rare-earth separation facilities, to be located in Bécancour, Quebec. The company intends to bridge the gap between producers and end users via the creation of a Consortium, through which it will provide low-cost material tolling programs to producers, and assuring security of supply for end users and sovereign governments. IMC is also developing innovative trading platforms, to further increase the opportunities within the rare-earth sector for traders.
Contact:
Mr. Patrick Wong, CEO
Innovation Metals Corp.
Telephone: +1-416-477-2412
Email: info@innovationmetals.com
Web: www.innovationmetals.com
