Shares in Lynas jumped more than 9% yesterday after revealing it had won an Australian government grant to commercialise an industry-first rare earth refining process at its planned WA plant.
The company’s share price hit a high of $6.41 after telling the market it would receive a $14.8 million Modern Manufacturing Initiative grant from the federal government.
Lynas said in the statement the money will allow it to produce a higher purity rare earth carbonate that can feed its Malaysia plant, as well as its proposed US Rare Earth processing facility.
The process will be installed during the construction of the company’s processing facility in Kalgoorlie.
The grant is expected to contribute approximately half of the implementation cost.
Lynas chief executive Amanda Lacaze said the new refining process will contribute to reducing chemical consumption and processing costs.
“Its commercialisation is the culmination of significant research and development by our in-house team,” Ms Lacaze said in the statement.
“In keeping with our commitment to the efficient use of industry capital, this process has been designed to treat our own Mt Weld concentrate and concentrate from 3rd party feedstock as other projects come online in the future.”
Lynas said its planned $500 million Kalgoorlie processing facility project will increase employment by approximately 290 positions during construction and approximately 120 ongoing jobs once operational.
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Meanwhile shares in Australian Vanadium jumped 11% to 20 cents after it told the ASX it had received an AU$3.7 million manufacturing grant from the federal government.
The company said the grant will allow the company to produce vanadium electrolyte commercially to support the development of the long duration energy storage market, according to a Thursday news release.
Also, the grant will be used to finalise Australian Vanadium’s high-purity vanadium pentoxide processing route as well as manufacture vanadium electrolyte and prototypes.
