Welcome back, everyone. Next, we have Ionic Rare Earths, trades on the ASX under the symbol IXR, and on the OTC under the symbol IXRRF. It's leading the secure supply of magnet rare earths, leveraging their sustainable technology, pioneering magnet recycling to drive the next generation of wind turbines, electric vehicles, defense, and advanced manufacturing. Happy to welcome the Managing Director, Tim Harrison. Welcome to the conference today. Tim, the floor is yours. Call me back when you're ready for questions.
Hi, Anna, thank you. Yeah, great to be here presenting to all of you. Ionic Rare Earths, an Australian-listed company, where this is a disclaimer, just the information we step through today is all publicly available. Our vision is to create a resilient, fully integrated Western rare earth supply chain, a value chain, and effectively starting with magnet recycling, which we see as being potentially the fastest and most secure source of Western capacity on magnet rare earth supply. Derived from our technology, which has been developed in the U.K. by 100% owned subsidiary Ionic Technologies, we've developed rare earth separation, refining capability technology, IP, which has now been applied to magnet recycling.
And so right now, in Belfast, we're producing neodymium and praseodymium. And in addition to that, we're also able to separate mixed rare earth carbonates, which are produced from primary deposits.
As I said earlier, recycling represents, we see, the fastest path to an alternative supply chain, and based upon our technology, we're looking at hyperscaling our recycling technology across a number of locations, a number of jurisdictions, starting with the U.K. But we've also got a 50/50 JV in Brazil, which will look to expand our technology into that market, and also here in the U.S., where I'm actually in Missouri at the moment, evaluating a potential site where we're looking to fast-track the production of separated magnet rare earths here in the USA from our recycling technology.
Beyond the recycling platform, we'll use the recycling platform as the mechanism to build our value chain with our partners across metals, alloys, and magnets, and in the future, be able to provide primary source material, primary supply via our Viridian joint venture in Brazil, and also our very strategic heavy rare earth deposit in Uganda, the Makuutu Rare Earth Project. If we talk about that rare earth supply chain and our approach within Ionic Rare Earths, we see there effectively being two phases. The first phase is speed, and that comes with the tonnage that we're able to achieve from recycling. It's able to be brought online within the next two years, and we're looking to do that across two immediate platforms.
Obviously, the U.K. with our Belfast commercial plant, which is working through financing and close to securing government support in the U.K., and also now establishing through our potential joint venture here in the U.S. with US Strategic Metals here in Missouri, building magnet recycling and producing separated oxides within the next couple of years. So that's the focus for that step one. The second phase is to bring online our Makuutu Rare Earth Project. Makuutu is a very strategic asset. It's a mineral security partnership asset, and as such, very rich in heavy rare earths, mine permitted, it's got environmental permits, and so it can be brought online within the next two to three years, and so represents a near-term potential solution for Western heavy rare earth access.
If we look at the opportunity here in the US, and I suppose what we're seeing now is a number of deals being done, funding being allocated to prioritize heavy rare earth capacity for a number of very strategic applications. One of those is the potential requirement on a raft of magnet rare earths to go into the military complex. And so our estimates and compiling data that we've been able to source publicly from publicly available information suggest that the defense demand is around about 1,000 tons per annum of magnets, of NdFeB permanent magnets, and that'll require somewhere in the order of about 300 tons per annum of separated magnet rare earth oxides. And that effectively represents one of our magnet recycling plants.
And so in addition to magnet recycling, we're also looking at, or in addition to supplying to the defense sector, we're also looking and talking with partners across a raft of other advanced manufacturing applications, whether that be in the automotive sector or a number of other high-value end product applications that are having a lot of difficulty right now sourcing these separated Heavy Rare Earths.
So now here in Missouri, it's a great opportunity to talk a little bit more about our MOU that we signed last month, and combining our technology from Ionic Rare Earths with the site, the fully permitted site, and the foundations that have been established here by U.S. Strategic Metals. And so we've established an MOU with a path to establishing a joint venture to look at recycling of magnets here in the U.S. on an 1,800-acre permanent site here in Missouri.
I've been out there earlier today and having a look at the infrastructure that's available to fast-track this project, and also talking with a number of stakeholders, both local and national, who are supportive of the combination of our technology with the permitted site here in Missouri. We expect on the back of our MOU the ability to work quickly to demonstrate US production of separated magnet rare earths, but also to look at a broader expansive relationship beyond NdFeB recycling, but also recycling samarium cobalt magnets and other heavy rare earth containing compounds using our technology. It's a very exciting phase and one that we see potentially leading to more value addition and potentially looking at downstream value addition via refining here on the fully permitted site in Missouri.
So just to now delve a little bit deeper into our technology and a bit more about our Ionic Technologies business. So what is it we do? Well, we effectively take end-of-life magnets and also the waste materials generated in the production of magnets. And we take that material and we put that through our process, a fully patented process, where we're able to separate, firstly, able to separate the rare earths away from the iron and boron and a number of other base metals that make up the major ingredients in addition to the rare earths. So we separate the rare earths away from that. And then using our solvent extraction, rare earth separation capability and IP, we're able to then separate the rare earths into their individual elemental composition.
Producing NDPR or in some instances separated neodymium and praseodymium, we can produce, and we are producing right now, separated high-purity dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide. The technology has also demonstrated its ability to produce high-purity samarium, gadolinium, and holmium, which are other magnet rare earths that we see from time to time present in NdFeB magnets and also the materials produced and waste materials and pre-consumer waste from the production of neodymium iron boron magnets.
If we quickly talk about the scale up of the technology, when we acquired the technology back in April 2022, it was at lab scale. Over the course of the last three and a half years, we've taken the technology with the support of the U.K. government from lab scale through pilot scale.
For the last 18 months, 24 months, we've been running our demonstration plant in Belfast at a significant capacity and producing materials going to our supply chain partners across a raft of different applications and now working through on the back of a feasibility study we completed last year, a funding dialogue with stakeholders in the U.K., including the U.K. government, to secure that cornerstone commitment to commercialize the IP in Belfast so partnerships and the relationships that we're building, certainly in the U.K., are on the screen there. We, as a recycler, are working with Less Common Metals, which is one of only less than a handful of metal and alloy producers that actually exist outside of China.
We work very closely with LCM, working with two German magnet manufacturers and developing products that are being evaluated now by a number of automotive partners, be it Ford, Bentley, and Wrightbus. And so working on and building the supply and value chain to demonstrate the product that we produce with quality that our partnerships can then deliver ultimately to the customer base. And that program has been fully supported by the UK government, and that's a model that we're now looking to replicate in a number of other geographies and bringing some of those relationships to the US market as well.
Just again, to sort of step through the scaling of the technology and what we've been able to do, lab scale through pilot scale, demonstration capacity in Belfast, where we're producing now 10 tons per annum of separated rare earth oxides, validating that with the supply chain, and now looking at the commercial plant and having that up and running in late 2027 and producing materials for our customers and partners. The economics on recycling in the U.K. indicated a very robust NPV of over 500 million GBP post-tax, and with a capital investment of about 85 million GBP in the U.K., which translates to roughly about $100 million, we can achieve a payback in a bit over two years.
That was based upon pricing from late 2024, and we've certainly seen a lot of very dynamic pricing in 2025 on the back of the rare earth and export restrictions that have been put in place by the Chinese. In Belfast, we've got access to quite a substantial amount of installed capacity that's reaching the end of its life.
And so those wind farms and wind turbines that are out there and around the U.K. provide a great potential feedstock for our technology. And one of the real attractions of developing capacity in Belfast, with its deep water port and infrastructure, being one of the ports selected by the U.K. government to facilitate the rollout and decommissioning of offshore wind. The technology represents a substantial environmental benefit, and that's incredibly important to a number of our potential customers, especially in the automotive sector and customers in Europe.
Given a number of added benefits on the environmental footprint of the project, it also provides us with some really strong license to operate and social drivers that have really focused the attention and opportunity for our technology in the recycling space. I want to touch upon now our very strategic Makuutu Rare Earths Project . What makes Makuutu strategic is the fact that it's rich in heavy rare earths. Around about 71% of our rare earth basket at Makuutu is magnet and heavy rare earths, and that's made up of 45% heavies.
To put that into context, Makuutu is 45% heavy rare earths, but something like Mountain Pass, U.S., is about 1% heavies. So it's got an appreciable amount of heavy rare earths that's incredibly complementary to these new Western supply chains that are being developed right now.
We own 60% of Makuutu, and with our partners developing the project through a Ugandan entity called Rwenzori Rare Metals, the mineralization trend itself is roughly 37 km long. So for those here in the U.S., that's around 20-21 miles and a bit over 20 miles, and it's actually bigger than the island of Manhattan. So just to give some context about the scale of the project, it's a very shallow deposit with a low strip ratio. We've achieved and been awarded our environmental permits. We have a mine permit and feasibility study completed in 2023. Makuutu is, as a mineral security partnership project, ready now for potential development and supply into the Western supply chain.
That basket, and to delve in a little bit deeper about the strategic value, has really highlighted over the last few months a dramatic increase in the potential value of the Makuutu project in today's dollars. If we look at certainly a lot of focus from a lot of other projects on NdPr, so Neodymium and Praseodymium, but what differentiates Makuutu is it’s 45% heavy rare earths. The big components there are the dysprosium at about 4%, and that’s trading somewhere in the order of about $950 a kilo at the moment. Terbium at about 0.6% in our basket, trading at about $3,500 a kilo.
But the big mover has been yttrium, where at 26% of our basket and trading reported numbers of $270 a kilo a couple of weeks ago, and even last week hearing some astronomical prices on yttrium, we're really seeing a huge amount of appetite for the Makuutu basket and its heavy rare earth composition. Highlighting the economics of Makuutu defined a very positive NPV back in 2023, and certainly on today's prices represents continued upside. Just to touch upon that upsize in pricing and just how dramatic the growth has been, it's been substantial over certainly the last six months, dramatic rises in the prices of dysprosium and terbium, and over the last couple of months, we're seeing some extremely sharp increases in price on another heavy rare earth called yttrium there in the blue, so it's a very exciting time now with heavy rare earths.
Finally, I just want to talk about our Viridian joint venture in Brazil. Viridian is 50/50 owned between ourselves, Ionic Rare Earths, and our partners, Viridis Mining and Minerals. And we're looking at leveraging our IP into value addition for Viridis. And so leveraging our IP and the access to the Viridis product from the Colossus Project, we're anticipating being in a position to build both refining and magnet recycling in Brazil to be part of a supply chain and value chain that will be built in Brazil over this decade and next. And then finally, also adding the potential to bring that separated material into the U.S. market and add further heavy rare earth separation capability here in the U.S.
So it's a very exciting time, w e're developing and producing separated heavy rare earths, recycling materials we've sourced from Brazil in our Belfast facility at the moment, and then delivering that material back to partners in Brazil. In addition to that, we've been shortlisted and selected to receive funding from a fund that was established earlier this year, allocating around $1.4 billion from the Brazilian government via the Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development, BNDES, and also a funding authority driven by the Brazilian government, again, FNEP, and looking at both the access to grant funding and government support via low-interest loans, positioning and accelerating now the opportunity with Viridian in Brazil.
Earlier this year, we received a grant, an award of land from the local municipality, and as such, we've got our land and working through that with our team to now progress the establishment of that refinery piloting facility and also accelerating now production of separated magnet rare earths from recycling in Brazil. Finally, just to close out with our market cap and our economics and corporate snapshot, we've recently consolidated our capital, and as of the end of last week, trading at about AUD 0.34 in Australia and roughly about AUD 15 million on hand as of the end of October after we've recently completed a capital raise where we saw a strategic investment from a US fund, Argentum Creek Partners, and now really accelerating our presence here in the US and engagement with a number of stakeholders across the US market.
Key takeaways, we've got a validated technology platform. We're in a sector now that has very, very positive momentum, and it's very clear to see from a number of discussions that we've been having here in the U.S. for some time. We've got the building blocks now to really progress. We've got a very compelling economic profile. Economics based upon the Belfast facility and our ability to hyperscale that certainly here to the U.S., Brazil, and other target markets mean we can see multiple plants rolled out, and as such, real upside for the business.
We've established strategic partnerships and working to further extend those relationships in the value chain that we want to build with our partners, and we have a clear growth roadmap, so beyond the U.K., looking at the scale out of our recycling technology, building the supply chain, and then leveraging our technology for the Viridian joint venture.
Then as capacity builds, bringing online our Makuutu project and being able to supply heavy rare earths into a Western supply chain. Then finally, we've built out a really strong leadership team, and we'll continue to build that out as we take forward and expand our presence here in the U.S. So with that, Anna, yeah, open to take some questions.
Great. Thank you, Tim. Okay, let's jump in. Let's see. Beyond what's happening in Missouri with US Strategic Metals, what are your plans for establishing Ionic Rare Earths in the U.S.?
Yeah, so look, Anna, we've been establishing our subsidiary here in the U.S. We're out talking with a number of partners. We're evaluating a number of other sites and opportunities to accelerate our presence here. Being in D.C. earlier this week here in Missouri, and a few destinations to go and check out over the course of the next couple of days here in the U.S. Yeah, things are moving very, very quickly indeed. It is a very exciting phase for the business now.
Several companies have emerged in the rare earth recycling space of late. What makes Ionic Rare Earths stand out from the crowd?
I think where we differentiate ourselves is our ability to produce that separated high purity oxides, and we have been able to do it. That is a differentiator because we are delivering material into key relationships and validating that material now in products. I think we do have an advantage. We do have a head start. We have been very transparent about our technology. We are continuing to host visitors to Belfast. We'll have more visitors through there next week, again, from the US. Again, it's very exciting, and I think we're really positioned now to scale the technology on a number of platforms.
And so if you can elaborate a little bit for investors new to the sector with heavy rare earths in the main focus for the company. So what's the difference? Light rare earths? Explain that to us.
Okay, so light rare earths are readily abundant. There are literally hundreds of projects out there looking for investment right now, and 99% of those projects are abundant in light rare earths. And light rare earths are really everyone talks about Neodymium and Praseodymium. But if we have a look at what's happening with rare earth prices, that's material that you can still source from China. That's material that hasn't seen a dramatic increase in price.
Where we've seen the increase in price is the elements that China has effectively turned the tap off, and they turned the tap off on heavy rare earths, and so they are the ones that are much, much harder to source. They are where China has really built their strategic position. They come from typically ionic adsorption clay deposits, and this is why us as a business have focused on that heavy rare earth supply, so developing our Makuutu project, but importantly, developing our recycling technology and being able to now produce dysprosium, terbium, and a raft of other heavy rare earths, so yeah, heavy rare earths are basically from samarium through to Yttrium, incredibly strategic materials needed for a number of high-end applications.
Good. Thank you for clarifying. Talk about what makes the Makuutu project in Uganda so strategic, and where does Makuutu sit relative to other rare earth projects globally, and give us a timeline.
Okay, so where does Makuutu sit relative to other projects? What differentiates Makuutu is its heavy rare earth composition. I touched a little bit on it in the presentation. Makuutu has got about 45% heavy rare earths in our basket, our product. If we compare that to a mineral concentrate, say, from an MP Materials and their Mountain Pass or Mountain Pass Mine or Lynas Rare Earths and their Mount Weld product, MP Materials has about 1% or less than 1%. Lynas has about 4%. So whilst they have significant tonnage, they're predominantly light rare earth deposits. They have very, very little heavy rare earths. And so the demand request requirement now to bring on heavy rare earths needs ionic adsorption clays.
The strategic importance of Makuutu being an ionic absorption clay, it's part of those strategic assets that China has leveraged over the last few decades to help build its position right now. The reality is that China itself is running out of heavies. It will be an area of very strategic demand. Obviously, there's a number of groups that are interested in the Makuutu project. As a mineral security partnership project, we are looking very much at the Western value chain and how we can facilitate Makuutu into that market.
On timeline, we're talking with groups now about the potential to bring Makuutu into that supply chain over the next two to three years. That's the plan. We're positioning the project. We're looking for that strategic partner and ultimately the government sponsor and supporter to be part of the support on building this Western supply chain.
And Brazil seems to be a very active market. So what makes the Viridian joint venture stand out so much?
I think where Brazil will really differentiate itself over years to come is a number of very good projects supplying a range of more heavy rare earth-rich supply than what we would see out of hard rock assets. So again, a number of ionic adsorption clay projects being developed in Brazil.
But I think what we see the opportunity with Viridian is to be able to leverage our technology with the product out of the Colossus Project from Viridis to be able to demonstrate, firstly via recycling, but also then piloting and ultimately building a commercial refinery in Brazil, processing in Brazil, the potential for value addition. And I think that becomes a strategic unlock for a very large number of potential resources in decades to come out of that Brazilian market. So as a strategic asset, it becomes a very important move for Western supply chains.
And talk a little bit about the future. What can investors expect over the next three, six, 12 months?
Yeah, so look, I think where we're at, we've really positioned ourselves now for some significant growth here in the U.S. market. So beyond this visit here to the U.S. and being in Missouri, I think we'll start to see some real speed now and gathering momentum for our opportunity here in the U.S. Obviously, the financing and starting to build out the capital stack for our Belfast facility, getting to a final investment decision, and ultimately starting the construction of our Belfast facility. There's some really important milestones for the company and our commercialization attempts for what we see as being a very unique technology, and the time is very much right now for us with Ionic Rare Earths. So yeah, very exciting next few months for Ionic Rare Earths.
And are you expecting to release any funding news this year?
Look, I'm hopeful that we're going to have some positive news very shortly. We continue to engage with a number of groups on that space, and as soon as we're in a position to do so, I very much look forward to sharing that news with the market.
Have you applied for any USA funding?
Look, we are working through a number of discussions and opportunities with different partners. So yeah, probably a bit too early to talk about that, but discussions have been positive.
Are you intending to join the Nasdaq? I think we potentially see the business moving to the Northern Hemisphere. I think there is a strong at some point in the near term that very much could be something that we look to explore, but we've got a few milestones to overcome before we get to that point.
What about some private funding interests? Are you attracting any of that?
Yeah, look, I mean, we've had a number of discussions with various groups. So I think as we start to really now focus on accelerating magnet recycling, we're seeing a number of opportunities emerging, both for the financing of the Belfast facility, but now rapidly building multiple plants here in the U.S. and also Brazil. I think it's a very exciting phase, and beyond those three markets, discussions continue with other potential partners as well. So yeah, I think, we're certainly having a very busy time of talking with a lot of groups about rapid deployment of the tech.
Perfect. All right, Tim, do you have any closing remarks for our viewers today?
No, thanks, Anna. It's pretty cold here in Missouri, and yeah, really looking forward to what's about to happen for the business. Wonderful.
Wonderful, we thank you for joining us on the conference, and we look forward to seeing you in 2026.
Thank you, Anna. All right, everyone, what a great day. In just a second, you'll be redirected to the registration page for our next conference next year in 2026. So please reserve your spot early. On behalf of all of us at Emerging Growth, thank you to our presenters and our viewers for making this a success. Follow us on X @EmergingGrowthC and on YouTube, Emerging Growth Conference, and we will see you next year. Thank you all so much.