6.3 SUPPORT PROMISING TECHNOLOGIES THROUGH FUNDING INDUSTRY-LED PILOT PLANTS FOR INNOVATIVE HREE PROCESSING.
The European Commission, industry and Member States should support and accelerate the scaling up and commercialization of key technologies through co-financing industry-led pilot plants for rare earth production and processing. This could include life-cycle analysis and technological and economical assessments that analyze the commercial potential and environmental footprints of processes. Such pilots should aim to bring together a wide range of experts and stakeholders.
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For example, pilot plants should be supported in the following fields:
• Process development for optimal REE recovery from HREE-rich minerals, such as eudialyte and xenotime, which are important for the next generation of REE mines and for which currently no established industry-scale extraction processes exist;
• Process development for direct alloy reprocessing routes for recycling of REE magnets, including re-melting separated materials melt spinning and re-sintering.
• Process, sensor and equipment development for the detection, collection, characterization, pre-processing and separation of REEs from discarded REE-rich products.
• Process development for the recovery of REE from industrial residues such as bauxite residue (red mud), phosphogypsum, mine tailings and metallurgical slags.
6.4 LEVELLING THE PLAYING FIELD FOR EUROPEAN HREE EXPLORATION THROUGH CO-FUNDING FOR PRE-FEASIBILITY AND BANKABLE FEASIBILITY STUDIES
In the aftermath of the rare earths crisis, REE exploration efforts have identified a dozen or so promising HREE deposits (mostly in OECD countries), which have been extensively explored and which have the potential to go into production before 2020. Some of the existing advanced exploration projects in Europe are among the serious contenders for this next generation of rare earths mines.
Given the size of the rare earths markets, only a few of these exploration projects will actually become mines over the next decade. Which ones ultimately go into production is difficult to predict, but it will depend on investors, who will have to provide the several hundred million in funding required to develop exploration projects into actual mines. The ‘decision to mine’ is based on the geological potential and economic attractiveness of individual exploration projects, as assessed by a bankable feasibility study that is conducted according to strict rules.
Some of the HREE projects that have made the most progress towards exploitation in recent years have done so with support from federal and state governments. There are many examples of such support schemes, including direct equity investment (e.g., through the Japanese agency JOGMEC, or the state government in Quebec), public loans (such as the $145 million credit line opened by the Alaskan State government in support an REE project), and R&D tax credits (such as in Australia, where 45% of R&D expenditure by REE exploration companies is covered by public funds).
The European Commission and Member States should evaluate the possibility of providing similar financial support for the extensive R&D that is necessary to produce pre-feasibility and bankable feasibility studies. Whether HREE mines in Europe or elsewhere eventually go ahead will depend on the decisions that commercial investors
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make based on the outcome of such studies. Without adequate support, Europe’s high-quality deposits may simply be left unexplored.
Ensuring sufficient land access for the exploration and exploitation of key deposits is also important and will require strong political backing.