Split Fusion

🚨🇬🇧 A fellow IXR shareholder just spent 3.5 hours INSIDE Ionic Technologies' Belfast rare earth recycling plant, and held a sealed bag of separated DYSPROSIUM OXIDE, the heavy rare earth everyone says the West can't make. His first-hand account, with photos approved by the company. 🧵 🔗Full Post on HotCopper Can Be Found Here hotcopper.com.au/posts/85362… 📍 The Visit A long-term shareholder (Koproskilo on HotCopper — report and photos shared with his permission) was hosted at Ionic House, Titanic Quarter, Belfast Harbour by Thomas Kelly and Fergal Coleman, the latter straight from Queen's University Belfast that morning, where the MAIL technology was invented by Prof Peter Nockemann, who still sits on the Ionic Tech board. 🔒 Strictly no photos inside after a previous incident risked IP, Thomas took these at predetermined locations and approved them for sharing 🏢 Corporates, financiers and unnamed major tech manufacturers are now regular visitors to the plant 🧲 The Feedstock Machine Pallets of magnets on site, sorted into buckets by source: EV motor magnets, hard-drive magnets, MRI magnets. 🤝 EMR has ~25 tonnes warehoused a mile away, with pricing being locked in per magnet type, years of unglamorous collaboration maybe only 1–2 other UK/EU operators can match 🆓 As the company's name grows, feedstock is being OFFERED to them, some of it free ♻️ Visitors were told EV makers scrap up to 10% of e-drive motors on epoxy bonding failures, a potential OEM scrap loop, with return-of-swarf clauses planned in every offtake. A true circular economy 🌍 Even reagents are supply-chain conscious: oxalic acid sourced from Spain, not China ⚗️ The Product In Hand: Dy₂O₃ That sealed, labelled bag is dysprosium oxide — a few percent of a magnet's mass but an outsized share of its value, and one of the rare earths China restricts hardest. 🏭 The demo plant has run 24/7 for 30+ months, producing 10+ tonnes of separated REO at 99.5–99.9% purity 🧪 An unnamed peer stuck at 90% purity sent samples to Belfast, Ionic lifted them to 99%. Epoxy-contaminated feed goes to 99%+ with NO pre-cleaning step, while many newer processes can't reach spec on real, untreated feedstock 🚗 The same Belfast oxides Ford just validated in 100% recycled magnets, 99.87% Nd oxide, 99.56% Dy oxide, 99.75% Tb oxide, on the first attempt 🏗️ Demo to Commercial 🔧 New larger mixing tanks just added to the heavy circuit, the Dy/Tb end is being expanded ⚡ Nth Cycle is sending a demo unit to Belfast for installation into the circuit, the technologies are proving genuinely complementary 📋 Permitting progressing well; the harbour authority welcomes them as a permanent fixture. Long-lead commercial equipment is being specified and quoted NOW, the demo plant's 30 months of bug-hunting is exactly why the commercial ramp should be faster than peers jumping straight from pilot 🎓 ~25 staff and a QUB PhD pipeline for rollouts flagged in the USA, Brazil and beyond, while competitors rehire 80-year-old retirees, China has banned exporting rare earth IP, equipment AND talent 💰 DFS: US$108.7m capex, 400 tpa commercial plant, post-tax NPV US$502m, IRR 43.6%, £12m UK Government offer in principle, FID targeted this quarter ⚠️ Honest caveats: the capital stack still has to close, and the solar-heavy power plan for a city with ~108 sunny days a year is still being optimised (green grid power /Battery and carbon credits under evaluation). Demo scale is not commercial scale, but all the right ingredients are there. 👀 The Bottom Line 📍While others publish renders, IXR ran a "show me" play with its own shareholders, and a retail investor walked the floor, saw the feedstock buckets, and held separated dysprosium oxide in his hands. His takeaway: the commercial plant feels close to fruition. 📍Grade sets the prize, but feedstock partnerships, magnet liberation logistics which is now being executed through the Drive 35, @theapcuk, UK funded CirculaREEconomy Project with EMR (Feedstock Logistics) and chemistry proven on real, dirty feed win the game, and Belfast is the rare place where all three are visible in one building. 📸 Photos: taken and approved by Ionic Technologies on site, shared with the visiting shareholder's permission. @IONIC_RE @IONICTECH_UK #RareEarths #IXR #IonicRareEarths #MagnetRecycling #Dysprosium #NdFeB #PermanentMagnets #CriticalMinerals #HeavyRareEarths #Belfast #CircularEconomy #SupplyChain #Ford #EVs #Recycling #MineToMagnet