Rainbow Rare Earths sees delayed DFS at Phalaborwa project

(Alliance News) - Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd on Monday said the Phalaborwa definitive feasibility study is expected to be finalised in 2026, later than planned.

The company, which is developing the Phalaborwa rare earths project in South Africa and the Uberaba project in Brazil, said the final timing will be dependent on the outcome of the various trade-off studies and separation evaluation work underway.

While "this is later than originally planned, the delay is expected to enable the results of the trade-off studies to benefit Rainbow by delivering a robust, technically proven flowsheet, with lower capital and operating costs," the firm added in a statement.

On completion, finalisation of the permitting process will run in parallel with the project finance process, which is expected to enable construction to commence in 2027.

In March, Rainbow Rare Earths said it expected to deliver the Phalaborwa DFS by the end of 2025.

Shares in the company were down 9.9% to 17.12 pence each in London midday Monday.

At Uberaba, Rainbow said it is working with Mosaic Co to "rapidly" complete an economic assessment of the phosphogypsum project.

Longer term, the company expects that the technology to recover critical rare earth elements from phosphogypsum will provide opportunities to develop a scalable and sustainable business.

"To this end, we are currently evaluating strategic partnerships in Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Canada, along with a number of other prospects globally," Rainbow Rare Earths adds in a statement.

The updates came as Rainbow Rate Earths said its pretax loss narrowed to USD3.2 million in the 12 months to the end of June from USD4.3 million a year ago, with no revenue in either period.

Administration expenses rose 7.3% to USD3.8 million from USD3.6 million.

The bottom line benefited from a USD1.2 million gain from a change in fair value of a royalty financing liability, compared to none a year ago, although finance costs rose to USD451,000 from USD119,000.

Last year's figures also included a USD717,000 impairment of Gakara assets in Burundi.

By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter

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