Geomega Resources is improving its proprietary ISR technology as it moves closer to being Canada's first rare earth elements recycler and the only one outside China. The company operates a pilot plant and has made several optimizations recently.
The plant can now recover over 95% of the reagents used, keeping operating costs down and the process environmentally sound. It can also handle more variability in feed stock, including metallic and calcined feeds, recycled bonded magnets, and sintered magnets.
Geomega is in discussions with strategic partners, institutional groups, and governments in regard to financing. The company hopes to have financing in place when the front end engineering design study is completed in July 2019. A demonstration plant could then be built.
Besides developing an environmentally responsible means of recycling rare earths, Geomega owns the Montveil niobium-rare earths project in the Abitibi region of Quebec, Canada.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)