Rare earth metals form a key part of the global transition to renewable energy sources, especially electic cars and wind turbines. Not only that, but rare earth metals like neodymium, praseodymium, terbium, and dysprosium, are used in fighter jets, mobile phones, drones and even air conditioning units.

The rare earths market is largely dominated by China, who presently produces some 60% of the world’s rare earth elements and processes 85% of them. AIM-listed Rainbow Rare Earths is focused on the development of the Phalaborwa Project in South Africa and the earlier stage Uberaba Project in Brazil. Both projects entail the recovery of rare earths from phosphogypsum stacks that occur as the by-product of phosphoric acid production, with the original source rock for both deposits being a hardrock carbonatite.

We caught up with CEO George Bennett at  the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town. He provided an update on Rainbow’s operations, but also tells about the many uses of rare earths and why they are so important in the global energy transition