Northern Rare Earth SYL to resumes rare earth oxide production
2019-11-14 15:08:48 [Print]
BEIJING (Asian Metal) 14 Nov 19 - Northern Rare Earth SYL High-tech Co., Ltd., one major separation plant of China Northern Rare Earth Group, would resume production of rare earth oxide late this week. The company started separating imported bastnaesite concentrate (TREO≥50%) in May but halted production late this September as they faced some technical problem.
"We ever faced problem of high calcium content in lanthanum oxide and the unstable partition of LaCe carbonate products, so we halted production late this September. And now we have solved these problem by adding a process to remove calcium and separating into single lanthanum oxide and cerium oxide products," said the source, adding that they would resume production in middle of this month. The plant plans to separate about 500t of imported light rare earth concentrate and would produce about 30t PrNd oxide per month sustainably. According to the source, the plant failed to obtain rare earth concentrate from their group and now they transfer to deal with imported products.
Established in January 2005, Northern Rare Earth SYL High-tech has been a subsidiary company of Northern Rare Earth Group since August 2015. The plant owns a consumption capacity of 12,000tpy of rare earth concentrate, while only obtains around 700t of rare earth mandatory production plan (REO) per year. Therefore, the plant also separates rare earth oxides for other plants. Its annual output of PrNd oxide was about 220t in 2018 due to insufficient raw materials supply and produced around 150t in the first ten months of this year. It holds less than 10t PrNd oxide stocks now, the same as mid-October.
According to the investigation of Asian Metal, mainstream prices of Chinese PrNd oxide prices move down to RMB280,000-285,000/t (USD40,000-40,714/t) EXW D/P now, down by RMB5,000/t (USD714/t) from last Friday. The plant failed to close any deals over the past two weeks. Consumers still delay purchases now and market participants forecast Chinese PrNd oxide prices would slide by RMB5,000/t (USD714/t) at least in the forthcoming week.
"We ever faced problem of high calcium content in lanthanum oxide and the unstable partition of LaCe carbonate products, so we halted production late this September. And now we have solved these problem by adding a process to remove calcium and separating into single lanthanum oxide and cerium oxide products," said the source, adding that they would resume production in middle of this month. The plant plans to separate about 500t of imported light rare earth concentrate and would produce about 30t PrNd oxide per month sustainably. According to the source, the plant failed to obtain rare earth concentrate from their group and now they transfer to deal with imported products.
Established in January 2005, Northern Rare Earth SYL High-tech has been a subsidiary company of Northern Rare Earth Group since August 2015. The plant owns a consumption capacity of 12,000tpy of rare earth concentrate, while only obtains around 700t of rare earth mandatory production plan (REO) per year. Therefore, the plant also separates rare earth oxides for other plants. Its annual output of PrNd oxide was about 220t in 2018 due to insufficient raw materials supply and produced around 150t in the first ten months of this year. It holds less than 10t PrNd oxide stocks now, the same as mid-October.
According to the investigation of Asian Metal, mainstream prices of Chinese PrNd oxide prices move down to RMB280,000-285,000/t (USD40,000-40,714/t) EXW D/P now, down by RMB5,000/t (USD714/t) from last Friday. The plant failed to close any deals over the past two weeks. Consumers still delay purchases now and market participants forecast Chinese PrNd oxide prices would slide by RMB5,000/t (USD714/t) at least in the forthcoming week.
