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ABX GROUP LTD (ABX) - Heavy Rare Earth Breakthrough
ASX BRIEFS
Heavy rare earths sit at the centre of magnets, electrification, and the modern supply chain, but getting to a product customers will actually buy is the hard part. We’re joined again by Dr Mark Cooksey, Managing Director and CEO of ABx Group Limited, to hear what’s changed since our last chat and why ABx believes its Tasmanian Deep Leads project is moving into a more serious development phase.
We break down ABx’s second high purity mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) sample and why it stands out: a higher proportion of heavy rare earths and even lower aluminium and iron impurities. Mark explains what MREC is used for, how separation plants think about feed quality, and why customer validation ultimately decides what “good” looks like. We also dig into processing choices for ionic clay rare earths, including what column leaching can tell you about heap leaching potential versus stirred tank leaching, and how that flexibility can shape capital cost, operating strategy, and approvals.
The conversation widens to the bigger Australian critical minerals ecosystem, including ABx’s involvement in the $240m Critical Metals for Critical Industries CRC and the push to accelerate practical R&D that supports real project decisions. We cover the Ucore Rare Metals MOU as a reminder that rare earths are a specification driven market, then switch gears to ABx’s ALCORE technology and the continuous pilot plant being built at Bell Bay to make industrial fluorine chemicals from aluminium smelter byproducts. We close with bauxite updates across Queensland, New South Wales, and Tasmania, and ABx’s priorities through 2026: engineering design, environmental approvals, customer deals, exploration upside, and getting the pilot plant running.
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