HXG Commences Funding the Commercialization of RapidSX Rare-Earth Elements Separation Technology - Seite 3

The RapidSX CDP will be financially self-sufficient following the initial investment, leaving HXG’s shareholders positively exposed to the revenue potential via AIM’s planned licensing commercialization strategy. Core components of the commercialization strategy are set out in the following sections.

RapidSX COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

Table 1: Summary of RapidSX vs. Conventional Solvent Extraction for REE Separation.

RapidSX		Conventional Solvent Extraction
Performance & Efficiency
Commercial Purity	Yes	Yes
REE Recovery Rates	High	High
Processing Time	Rapid	Slow
Time to Equilibrium	Hours/Days	Weeks
CAPEX
Equipment Cost	~60% to 70% Reduction	High
Separation Staging	~90% Reduction	High
OPEX
Metal Inventory/WIP	Low	High
Organic Volumes	Low	High
Labor	Low	High
Power Consumption	Low	High

• Low CAPEX: Due to the considerably reduced number of separation stages per SX circuit and resultant smaller physical plant footprint, compared to conventional SX approaches. Based on the IMC pilot-scale test work and review of various ‘typical’ light REE (“LREE”) projects, IMC estimates that there is a 60-70% saving in terms of start-up capital per kg of annual separation capacity, contingent on the specific feedstock utilized and resulting REE products desired.
• Rapid Equilibrium: As a result of the significantly increased separation kinetics of the RapidSX proprietary technology, the time to equilibrium/steady state is dramatically accelerated — from weeks (as is typical in the case with conventional SX) to hours/days with RapidSX.
• Low OPEX: Due to significantly reduced separation times, reduced reagent and power consumption, reduced manpower requirements, and reduced in-process metal inventories. The piloting work undertaken by IMC also indicated meaningful cost savings of between 15-20% compared to utilization of conventional SX, depending on the feedstock and resulting REE products. Estimated separation costs of less than US$2/kg for light REOs and less than US$12/kg for heavy REOs (depending on the feedstock and resulting REE products) are competitive with current estimated Chinese separation costs.
• Agnostic: RapidSX is capable of separating LREE-rich, heavy-REE (“HREE”) rich and even blends of mixed REE feedstocks.
• Commercially Available: all construction materials for the RapidSX technology - all associated equipment and chemistry — are readily commercially available.
• Scalable and Modular: the RapidSX technology’s process lines are modular and scalable, providing licensees to scale commercial production capacity.