Hello, and welcome to Virtual Investor Conferences. On behalf of OTC Markets, we are very pleased you have joined us for our Australian Rare Earths and Critical Mineral Conference. Our next presentation of the day is from Ionic Rare Earths. Please note you may submit questions for the presenter in the questions box. You can also view a company's availability for one-on-one meetings by clicking "Book a Meeting" in the top toolbar. At this point, I'm very pleased to welcome Tim Harrison, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Ionic Rare Earths, which trades on the OTCQB venture market under the symbol IXRRF and on the ASX under the symbol IXR. Welcome, Tim.
Hi, Greg. Thanks for having me. Ionic Rare Earths, as Greg mentioned, we're an Australian-listed company. We're working on specifically building resilience in the supply chain on magnet and heavy rare earths. Just our disclaimer. The focus of the business has been, over the past six years, building that resilient, fully integrated Western rare earth supply chain. We have three aspects to the business looking at different components. We start with Ionic Technologies, which is our 100% owned U.K. subsidiary, which has developed rare earth separation capability. That rare earth separation capability has been adopted for magnet recycling, where we're separating and producing now high-purity separated magnet rare earth oxides. That's NdPr, dysprosium, and terbium. Those are four elements that are absolutely critical for the development of permanent magnets that are used in a range of different high-end technologies and advanced manufacturing applications.
In addition to that, our technology can be used in separating the rare earth elements in mixed rare earth carbonates that are produced from primary assets, i.e., mining assets. Recycling we see as the fastest and most secure path for an alternative, secure, and traceable supply chain for the Western world. Our technology is developed and is being developed with a mode to being available for hyperscaling. Not just building one plant, but being in a position where we can rapidly replicate that capacity across a number of jurisdictions. We will talk about that in the presentation shortly. Additional to our recycling footprint and our plans to hyperscale into the Western supply chain, we also have our Viridian joint venture, which is a partnership, a joint venture we have established in Brazil with another Australian-listed company, Viridis Mining and Minerals.
That JV is looking at building refining for the Colossus mixed rare earth carbonate out of Brazil, which will enable separated rare earth oxides, but also building recycling in Brazil. It is a very exciting market, one that we think is going to have substantial growth over years to come. Finally, the Makuutu Rare Earth Project, which is an advanced stage ion-adsorption clay project rich in magnet rare earths and heavy rare earths. It is a shovel-ready project, fully permitted. Environmental permits, mine permits, feasibility studies completed. We are working through the financing and ultimately the flow of that material into a Western supply chain. To reiterate, the company is focused on accelerating Western supply chains. We do think that the recycling opportunity is the one that moves first, that enables the back end of the supply chain to be built ex-China.
On the back of that, developing a fully circular, integrated, lower capital profile for ultimately the primary supply chain to flow into towards the end of this decade and beyond. I want to talk first in a bit more detail around Ionic Technologies and our recycling footprint. Effectively, what we're doing is we're taking end-of-life magnets and the material produced in the production of new permanent magnets, and we're upcycling it. We're unlocking the rare earth elements that were in that material so that it can be reallocated, redistributed for new higher value applications moving forward, better magnets effectively for a range of strategic and military applications. We talk about the technology. Right now, Ionic Rare Earths, through our U.K. subsidiary Ionic Technologies, is the only Western recycler producing separated and refined magnet rare earth oxides today.
We've had substantial inbound demand on our materials because we're producing at the bottom there NdPr, but also dysprosium and terbium. There are four elements that we're producing and we're selling at the moment or we're placing into the supply chain to validate our materials and to build supply chains with our partners. In addition to that, our technology can also be used to recover samarium, gadolinium, and holmium out of permanent magnets today. Beyond that, we're looking at a range of other heavy rare earth-rich compounds where our technology could be used to unlock that material for the Western supply chain. Increasingly, this has had a lot of focus over the last six months with the export restrictions that have been put in place by China.
Whilst those restrictions may have optically been relaxed over the course of the last month, the reality is that the focus is still there for the Western supply chain to decouple from the existing previous source of this material, i.e., China. Our technology has worked through validation from initial lab scale back in 2022 through piloting and demonstration scale capability that we have been able to prepare and de-risk in Belfast in the U.K. We are now working through our plans to commercialize the technology in the U.K. As I mentioned earlier, we are producing separated magnet rare earths now. Importantly, they are high-purity and refined heavy rare earths, which we are able to sell. We are selling material at about four times the price of Chinese material if you are able to get it today.
On the back of the technology and the demonstration plant, we've been able to build relationships in the supply chain. I'll talk about that in a little bit. We've got a number of industrial partners across metals, alloys, and magnets in Europe and building those out now in the U.S. with brand name OEMs where we're validating our materials in their supply chain with a view to being part of their long-term ambitions to incorporate our Western material into their supply chains. Our technology and the relationships we're building has no dependence on China. We are able to provide a fully alternative supply chain for our customers. We've completed a feasibility study on the Belfast facility. That, in essence, is a cookie-cutter approach. We intend to replicate what we're doing in Belfast in a number of applications and locations and jurisdictions around the world.
We'll talk about that a little bit more later. Our ability to vertically integrate, dropping our technology into the existing and new magnet rare earth supply chain that is building in the West, means that we actually see and foresee the role of recycling growing dramatically over the next 5-10 years. Going and looking a little bit more at our path to commercialization, Ionic Rare Earths acquired what was previously Seren Technologies in late 2021. At that point, the technology was a spin-out of Queen's University in Belfast. We've invested in taking that technology, which was at laboratory scale, patents around the rare earth separation. We've validated that technology firstly at pilot scale, then in demonstration plant scale in 2023 and 2024 with the support of the U.K. government.
In totality, we've received approximately GBP 6 million worth of support from the U.K. government already to date. Recently, we were awarded another GBP 11 million as part of a larger rare earth supply chain, which is called Circular Economy, which is about validating a larger rare earth supply chain based upon recycling in the U.K. With the support of the U.K. government, specifically Innovate U.K. and the Advanced Propulsion Center, we then completed a feasibility study last year, which is targeting a commercial plant operating in 2027, producing approximately 400 tons of separated magnet rare earth oxides. That feasibility study defined a capital investment of GBP 85 million and a payback of two and a half years to build a plant in Belfast that has appreciable economics, about 43% internal rate of return post-tax, quite a robust NPV of over 500 million post-tax.
That's defined on a life of operation of around 20 years. The reality is that recycling operations, unlike a mine which has a reserve which will deplete over time, the reserve and the resource is actually something that increases exponentially year on- year. What we actually see is not just one recycling plant, but multiples of these. This is why we're extremely bullish on the opportunity for recycling. Whilst China controls the bulk production of rare earth magnets, accounting for more than 90% of global production to date, the reality is that the West has been a bigger consumer of this material. A consumer in the finished goods, whether they're anything with an electric motor. Typically, if you look at electric cars today, wind turbines, generators, air conditioners, all of them are typically based upon permanent magnets.
Those permanent magnets have rare earths in them. We are extracting those with our supply chain partners, getting that into our supply chain where we process that material, and we are able to unlock the rare earths within. We are anticipating throughput of around 1,200 tons per annum for one plant, and that will produce 400 tons of separated rare earth oxides. Again, focusing on NdPr oxide, but also dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide. We have seen appreciable escalation in those prices over the course of the last six months with the Chinese export controls in place. In addition, the technology has a much lower carbon footprint. That is incredibly important to a number of the OEMs who are looking to bring down their carbon footprint as part of their overall value proposition to a customer base that is increasingly starting to be more focused on the environment.
Recycling and our technology, based on a life cycle analysis completed by Minviro last year or this year, sorry, I should say, has defined a 60% lower carbon footprint based upon our material from our technology in the U.K. compared to, let's say, for example, primary supply coming out of China. Supply chains are incredibly important. The appetite from our partners to incorporate our technology into their supply chain has been very strong. With the support of the U.K. government, we recently announced a GBP 11 million program, which has a number of commercial partners. The commercial partners are there on the screen, whereby we are working with upstream partners, EMR Recycling, the European Metals Recycling, which is a U.K., European, and U.S. recycler of note. We are taking the magnets from their supply chain.
We're processing them to be able to extract the rare earths, which then goes to LCM to turn into metals and alloys. Where then that material goes to German magnet manufacturers that are looking at establishing certainly Vacuumschmelze presence in the U.S., making permanent magnets, which then end up in supply chains of Ford, Bentley, and Wrightbus, which are U.K. manufacturers. Importantly, within the U.K. context, there's about a million people employed in the U.K. automotive supply chain, which is moving from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. It is a big initiative and a big drive coming from the U.K. government. There is a huge amount of investment happening in this space. With the support of the U.K. government, we will define our materials in the supply chains of those three OEMs.
It leverages on previous work that we've done, whereby in a previous relationship between Ionic, LCM, and Ford, with the support of GKN, we'll actually have our materials in a Ford EV later this year and early next year. That will be part of the validation of the supply chain. Belfast as a location is also incredibly important. Not only is it the home of the technology, but it's also the epicenter of the rollout of offshore wind. Because of the infrastructure, it will also be a key focus on the decommissioning of offshore wind. For those of you not aware, the U.K. is projected to have approximately 12% of global rare earth magnets supplied consumption by the end of this decade, driven by the early adoption of offshore wind, but also the rollout of electric vehicles.
The U.K. is a considerable consumer of magnet rare earths. With that, obviously a huge potential source of materials for recycling. Our presence in Belfast, which has a deep water port and the infrastructure to support the U.K.'s rollout of offshore wind and decommissioning, means that it will also be an epicenter for those magnets from offshore wind coming back for recycling. In addition to that, the strategic position of Northern Ireland and dual market access based upon the Windsor framework means that not only can we operate in the U.K. market, but because of the Windsor framework, we can also operate in the European market tariff-free. Effectively, dual market access out of Northern Ireland. When we look at our peers, and there are a number of companies that have moved into magnet recycling. Those companies offer a range of different solutions.
What we do as Ionic Technologies and Ionic Rare Earths is we use a technology called long-loop recycling. It is a hydrometallurgical process, which effectively takes the end-of-life magnets and the waste materials in the production of magnets all the way back to separated rare earth oxides. With those separated rare earth oxides, our partners are able to then deploy that material in making new, better, next-generation magnets. Some of our peers in the recycling space do not go to that same extent. They do not go and produce separated rare earth oxides. They make a range of different intermediate products. Those intermediate products would be suitable, certainly for our feed source for us.
We do see an appreciable opportunity to now, on the back of the work that we've done in de-risking the technology, certainly look to North American markets and European markets where our technology potentially would achieve a significantly higher valuation. If we look at the U.S., for example, certainly the technology of some of our peers has been valued substantially higher, multiples of three to five times greater than we see the valuation in Australia. It is one of the reasons why we are keen on progressing OTC Markets involvement, but also beyond that, greater presence in northern hemisphere markets. When we look at the technology and where we are relative to our peers, those same companies that we had on that comparison chart previously, we're certainly de-risked.
We have a technology readiness level, which is certainly far further and more mature than a lot of our competitors in the space. Because of that, we certainly have a lot of visibility on where our competitors are because in some instances, we're working to upgrade their materials for some of the supply chain partners that they've been working with that aren't able to achieve the target parameters and product qualities required to make new magnets. We are working closely with a range of different partners across the supply chains. In some of those instances, we do have visibility on the products that are being produced.
We are very confident that we have a technology that is certainly applicable for rapid deployment across multiple markets and something that is at the bleeding edge of this advanced geopolitically sensitive opportunity and our ability to rapidly deploy our technology in those target markets beyond the U.K. With that, last week, we were able to announce a strategic or an MOU with US Strategic Metals, a U.S.-based company, looking to both fast-track magnet and heavy rare earth production via recycling, but also the ability to look at using our technology on the processing of mixed rare earth carbonates from other deposits, other primary assets.
It is a hugely exciting opportunity for a company for Ionic, but also to work with US Strategic Metals, which has a fully permitted site in Missouri, and to be able to rapidly replicate what we've been doing in Belfast in the U.K., in the U.S., to accelerate the production of magnet rare earth oxides from the recycling of neodymium iron boron, which is one of the most common permanent magnet compositions, but also samarium cobalt. Our technology has the application and applicability across a range of different materials in the heavy rare earth space and ability to rapidly deploy that technology into the Western supply chain. It is a very exciting opportunity for the company moving forward. When we look at the U.S. market and certainly what one magnet recycling plant can do, it can certainly satisfy the requirements on the military and defense complex.
Beyond that, we're seeing this opportunity increase significantly with the advent of new technologies such as drones, robots, and AI. We're seeing the requirement for those magnet rare earths, NdPr, dysprosium, and terbium increasing dramatically over the next few years. It's a race that unfolds between governments to make sure that they have the supply chains in place, but also the hardware and the infrastructure for their military defense requirements. We do see this as an area that's certainly getting a lot of focus. We've seen certainly a lot of movement in the U.S. market on rare earths, but specifically around those magnet rare earths. Increasingly, we've had a lot of inbound interest about our technology and our ability to rapidly deploy on our heavy rare earth capability in the U.S. Next, I want to talk about our Viridian joint venture.
A 50/50 joint venture in Brazil, looking at both rare earth separation and refining technology across both refining and magnet recycling, but also our ability to bring that technology into the U.S. market. Earlier this year, we actually took magnets from Brazil. We took them to Belfast. We recycled them, able to extract out the rare earth elements, and we delivered those back to our stakeholders in Brazil earlier this year. It is a very exciting market, one that certainly had a lot of government support and a demand there from government to build that capability in Brazil.
I would also point to the fact that as Viridian and our partners in Brazil, Viridis, not only were we shortlisted in June for a $1.4 billion investment across the rare earth supply chain and a number of critical raw materials, focusing on downstream value addition in Brazil, we were selected, yeah, we were shortlisted initially, then selected as part of the second stage in July as, I think, the only rare earth opportunity in the space. We are working through that now with our partners in Viridis, engaging with BNDES, which is the Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development, but also FINEP. FINEP oversees the grants from the Brazilian government on studies. We are working through now the financing package, which will be substantial on us developing capacity in Brazil. That value addition, human capital across rare earths, refining and recycling.
Earlier this year, a couple of months ago in September, our local municipality in Poços de Caldas in the state of Minas Gerais awarded ourselves a joint venture, Viridian, land in an industrial complex where we plan to develop a center for refining and recycling and innovation in Brazil, which will also be part of our capacity building initiative. Finally, to talk about the Makuutu Rare Earth Project, which is a large ion-adsorption clay deposit in Uganda. Importantly, Makuutu is a Mineral Security Partnership approved project, which has approximately 45% heavy rare earths. It is incredibly strategic for new Western supply chains. It is environmentally permitted. It has a mining license. It is an infrastructure-ready project, shovel-ready to supply into the supply chain within two to three years.
That really means that right now we are at the sharp end of working out where our material goes in a Western supply chain and part of a number of discussions looking at where and how our material potentially flows into the US market. This feasibility study, which we completed in 2023, is on one of a number of licenses that we have at Makuutu. It is a very large deposit, approximately 20 mi end to end. It is bigger than the island of Manhattan, with a low strip ratio and a low capital development. Being an ion-adsorption clay deposit, it has a very simple processing whereby we effectively wash the clay with a fertilizer and we are able to extract rare earths in the form of a mixed rare earth carbonate, which is an intermediate chemical precipitate.
We are able to put the material back into the ground, the residue back into the ground, and rehabilitate. It has a number of advantages. It is capital light. It is quite responsive to the supply chain, so we can build capacity very quickly. Finally, just to bring this all together, our vision on supporting the Western supply chain and focusing on defense and industrial demand really has a number of enablers, but starting with recycling and then secondary, the Makuutu mine and refining, we do see as being intimately involved in building resilience in the supply chain for North America. We believe that certainly Ionic has the tools and, working with our partners, can be a key enabler of new robust supply chains being built in the U.S.
Finally, to capture our corporate snapshot, as of closing trading yesterday, sorry, earlier this week, market caps are around about AUD 108 million. At the end of October, we had about AUD 15 million in the bank based upon a rights issue, which we completed in the month of October. We are funded to be able to do a lot of work well into 2026. Certainly with a number of near-term catalysts, it is a very exciting time for the company moving forward. Just the key takeaways. If we look at our recycling opportunity and certainly the business, it is a validated technology platform built and demonstrated in Belfast. We are producing products and putting them into the supply chain. Certainly, the positive sector momentum has a lot of focus on rare earths, but specifically magnet and heavy rare earths, strong appetite on downstream investment, recycling, refining, and magnets.
That is exactly where we operate. If we look at the economics of Belfast, it does have very strong economics and certainly economics that we anticipate will get better in a number of other markets. We have developed relationships with the supply chains, whether they are OEMs or industrial supply chain partners across metals, alloys, and magnets, and they are relationships that we can bring into new initiatives. We have a clear growth roadmap whereby we are looking at building upon recycling, but also bringing and scaling that technology into a number of target geographies, which means that we can start to build resilience in a supply chain. The leadership team, we have been able to assemble a very strong board and management team. I think that bodes well for certainly not only what we are doing now, but also growth into the future.
On that basis, we've got a very exciting phase for the company to move forward with. Just to now sort of work through some of the questions that have come up, what are some of the near-term catalysts the company can look forward to? I think opportunity really now is around certainly some of the milestones that the company has been working on. I think the validation that's about to come from we expect a positive outcome in the U.K. on the capital grant that we've been working on for some time. We're approaching now the final stages of that process. Certainly had very strong feedback on that. We expect to have some positive news within weeks on that capital grant. That will be a considerable cornerstone commitment from the U.K. government that we probably see being across multiple stages.
Certainly an initial capital grant, but also support from the U.K. government with the National Wealth Fund. We see that collectively coming together to be quite a significant support and validation for the U.K. plant. If we look to the U.S., obviously the MOU we've signed with US Strategic Metals puts us in a great position now to position our technology and rapidly expedite the production of magnet rare earths in the U.S., which I think, again, will be a huge catalyst for the company to re-rate. Finally, if we look to Brazil and what's happening in Brazil, I would say the finalization of the funding in Brazil with BNDES and FINEP, putting some numbers and quantum around that.
In addition to that, starting to put some economics on the opportunity for certainly recycling in Brazil and then refining are significant milestones, which I think help the wider investment community understand the size of the price in that Brazilian market. Finally, one other question here about the recent capital raise. With regards to the recent capital raise, we did have a significant strategic investment coming from a US-based fund, Argentum Creek Partners. That was a significant investment on the back of due diligence and a larger potential collaboration that's unfolding now. Our ability to not only de-risk and accelerate the production of magnet rare earths in the U.K., but also targeting the growth of our technology into certain target markets, including North America and specifically the U.S., with the support of Argentum Creek and also other opportunities that the company is exploring.
I think that's me all wrapped up. I'll have to get back to you with more questions after this conference. Thank you very much.