Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd.

RBW · LSE

rainbowrareearths

$209.8M

USD

Market cap · 2026–07 · week 29

Guernsey, St Peter Port

Country

Rare Earths & Critical Minerals

Sector

Developer · Junior / Minor · Rare Earth · Brazil · South Africa

Last updated 21 June 2026

Data compiled from public filings — information only, not investment advice. AI‑assisted; see methodology.

Overview: Rainbow Rare Earths Limited is a junior rare-earth developer headquartered in Guernsey, with a UK office, operating primarily in South Africa and Brazil. The company's portfolio consists of 3 projects, comprising 0 operating mines, 1 development project, and 2 exploration or suspended projects. Key assets include Phalaborwa in South Africa, Uberaba in Brazil, and the suspended Gakara project in Burundi. The business model is built on recovering the critical magnet rare-earth elements — neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium — from phosphogypsum, a waste by-product of historic phosphoric-acid production, rather than from conventional hard-rock ore. This secondary-source approach eliminates the cost and risk of mining, crushing and milling because the material already sits at surface, and it carries strong environmental credentials by remediating legacy waste stacks. The enterprise positions itself within the Western drive to build an independent and ethical rare-earth supply chain, against a backdrop in which China controls roughly 70% of global rare-earth mining and about 90% of processing. A flowsheet leaches and upgrades the rare earths into a high-grade mixed rare-earth product before separation into NdPr oxide and a heavy-rare-earth SEG+ product containing dysprosium and terbium. As a pre-revenue developer, the organization depends on equity and strategic-partner financing and is exposed to rare-earth price cycles, single-asset development risk, and jurisdictional and permitting risk across its operating countries.

Strategy: Strategic direction is anchored on advancing the flagship Phalaborwa project toward a construction decision while pioneering a scalable phosphogypsum-recovery model that can be replicated elsewhere. A core near-term priority is completing the Phalaborwa Definitive Feasibility Study, expected in 2026, with timing dependent on trade-off studies aimed at reducing capital and operating costs and an evaluation of the optimal separation route, comparing continuous ion chromatography against conventional solvent extraction. The enterprise is also assessing a staged development that would sell the mixed rare-earth product first and add separation capacity later. Growth beyond Phalaborwa centers on Brazil, where a Memorandum of Understanding and a jointly funded Economic Assessment with The Mosaic Company target the larger, higher-grade Uberaba phosphogypsum stacks. A central objective is to secure Phalaborwa's place in the emerging Western supply chain, underpinned by an offtake arrangement incorporating a neodymium-praseodymium floor price linked to a United States domestic permanent-magnet initiative. Capital allocation is directed toward delivering the DFS and securing project financing, supported by strategic shareholder TechMet and royalty-finance partner Ecora, with the combined Phalaborwa and Uberaba output intended to establish Rainbow as a meaningful independent rare-earth producer.

Management: The Board is chaired in a non-executive capacity by Adonis Pouroulis, the founder of Rainbow who listed the company in 2017 and whose three decades in African natural resources also include founding Chariot Transitional Energy and the Pella Resources Group and founding and chairing Petra Diamonds; he chairs the Nomination Committee and sits on Remuneration. Executive leadership is headed by Chief Executive Officer George Bennett, who has more than 30 years in mining and finance, founded mining-engineering firm MDM Engineering and listed Shanta Gold on the LSE, and serves on the Sustainability Committee. Pete Gardner serves as Chief Financial Officer and acts as the Group's Anti-Bribery Officer. The Board comprises the Chairman, one Executive Director, four independent Non-Executive Directors, and one Non-Executive Director. Independent directors include Alexander Lowrie, who chairs the Remuneration Committee and sits on Audit and Sustainability; Atul Bali, a chartered accountant who chairs the Audit Committee and sits on Nomination; and J. Peter Pham, a former United States Special Envoy for the Sahel Region with the rank of Ambassador, who sits on Nomination. Darryll Castle, Director of Operations for strategic shareholder TechMet, serves as a Non-Executive Director under TechMet's right to nominate a director for so long as it holds at least 10% of the issued shares.

Sustainability: Sustainability is integral to the Phalaborwa development and operating plan, with the project's central environmental thesis being the reprocessing of legacy phosphogypsum stacks left by historic phosphoric-acid operations, thereby reducing legacy environmental risks at a site located near the Kruger National Park. The company frames its activity as a circular-economy approach, producing critical rare earths from secondary waste sources rather than new hard-rock mining. Rainbow works with an independent environmental consultancy on project design and is integrating ESG parameters into the DFS, and its sustainability disclosure is prepared by an independent specialist in sustainability reporting on a basis consistent with its 2023 and 2024 reporting. The organization commits to training and skills development and to positively contributing to host communities, and it maintains a whistleblowing system enabling employees and others to raise concerns, alongside a Code of Conduct that incorporates respect for human rights.

Structure: The company is incorporated in Guernsey and listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker RBW. TechMet Limited is a strategic shareholder with the right to nominate a director — currently Darryll Castle — for so long as it holds at least 10% of the issued shares, and the United States International Development Finance Corporation is an indirect shareholder via TechMet. At Phalaborwa the company owns 85% of the project and holds an option to acquire the remaining 15% from Bosveld Phosphates (Pty) Limited through the issuance of 38,873,663 new ordinary shares, exercisable up to 30 June 2026 after the deadline was extended from 31 December 2025 by mutual agreement. The Uberaba opportunity is pursued under a Memorandum of Understanding with The Mosaic Company, under which Rainbow and Mosaic have commenced an Economic Assessment with costs shared 50:50 and a finder's fee arrangement in place. The company has a royalty-financing arrangement carried at fair value through profit or loss, with royalty-finance partner Ecora cited alongside TechMet as a source of support. Offtake arrangements include a United States domestic permanent-magnet supply-chain deal incorporating an NdPr floor price and an offtake agreement with NEXUS Intertrade. The Gakara project in Burundi is held through subsidiary Rainbow Mining Burundi, in which the Government of Burundi holds a non-controlling interest, and a FinBank loan facility is affected by the government's suspension of the RMB bank account.

Hedge: As a pre-revenue developer, the company does not operate a conventional commodity, foreign-exchange, or interest-rate derivative hedging programme, and no such hedge positions were outstanding at 30 June 2025. Commodity-price risk on its principal product is instead addressed commercially: the offtake arrangement linked to the United States domestic permanent-magnet supply-chain initiative incorporates a neodymium-praseodymium floor price intended to underpin the economics of the Phalaborwa project, providing downside price protection on future NdPr sales while preserving exposure to higher market prices.

Source: Rainbow Rare Earths Limited - Annual Report - 2025

Development · 1 project

Phalaborwa

Asset · Feasibility · Ownership 85%

South Africa, Limpopo

Open project page

Mining

Type

Development

Status

🇿🇦 South Africa, Limpopo

Country

Project information

As at 30 June 2025

Aggregation level: Asset

Report standard: Jorc

Ownership %: 85

Operator: Yes

Extraction: Processing Facility

Description

As at 30 June 2025

Flagship near-term rare-earth development project in Limpopo, South Africa, recovering the four magnet rare earths (Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb) from phosphogypsum stacks left by historic phosphoric-acid production that ceased in 2014, near Kruger National Park. The at-surface material eliminates mining, crushing and milling costs and de-risks the legacy environmental footprint. A unique flowsheet leaches the rare earths and upgrades them to a high-grade mixed rare-earth product (MREP/MREC) ahead of separation into NdPr oxide and a SEG+ (heavy REE) product; separation route (CIC vs SX) and a possible staged build are under trade-off study. An Interim Study indicates a post-tax NPV10 of US$610.9 million, post-tax IRR of 38%, ~2-year payback and operating cost of US$12.91/kg TREO over a ~16-year life producing ~1,820 tpa separated NdPr REO and ~80 tpa Dy/Tb. Rainbow owns 85%, with an option to acquire the remaining 15% from Bosveld Phosphates via issuance of 38,873,663 shares, exercisable to 30 June 2026. DFS expected 2026.

Mining metrics

As at 30 June 2025

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Reserves & resources — detail

As at 30 June 2025

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Royalties & streams

All royalty and stream interests in the database that refer to this asset by name.

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Exploration · 1 project

Uberaba

Asset · Exploration

Brazil, Minas Gerais

Open project page

Mining

Type

Exploration

Status

🇧🇷 Brazil, Minas Gerais

Country

Project information

Aggregation level: Asset

Report standard: -

Ownership %: 100

Operator: No

Operator name: The Mosaic Company

Extraction: Processing Facility

Description

Early-stage opportunity to replicate the Phalaborwa secondary-source model at larger scale on phosphogypsum stacks at Mosaic's phosphoric-acid production site in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Pursued under a Memorandum of Understanding with The Mosaic Company, with Rainbow and Mosaic having commenced an Economic Assessment (costs shared 50:50). Sample grades range 0.45%–0.79% TREO with an average of 0.52% TREO — some 32% higher than Phalaborwa — though the material has not yet been formally defined as a JORC-compliant rare-earth resource.

Mining metrics

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Suspended · 1 project

Gakara

Asset · Suspended · Ownership 90%

Burundi

Open project page

Mining

Type

Suspended

Status

🇧🇮 Burundi

Country

Project information

Aggregation level: Asset

Report standard: -

Ownership %: 90

Operator: Yes

Extraction: Underground

Description

High-grade vein-hosted rare-earth project in Burundi, held through subsidiary Rainbow Mining Burundi with a non-controlling interest held by the Government of Burundi. The project remained on care and maintenance throughout the year at the request of the Government of Burundi; the RMB bank account remains suspended by the government and ongoing care-and-maintenance costs of about US$0.1 million were incurred. No current mineral resource is reported in the period.

Mining metrics

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Assumptions

The projects listed here reflect the information captured in this workspace and are not necessarily a complete picture of the company's portfolio. For authoritative figures, refer to the company's official filings.

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How to read this tab

The tables below list unit codes most often used in the Rare Earths & Critical Minerals sector for this company. MetalPilot stores contained metal or product in the codes below; grade and tonnage use separate fields. In side-by-side comparison views (stock page Portfolio tab, watchlist By sector), heterogeneous source units are converted to each commodity's preferred display unit (for example Moz Au, kt Cu, MMbbl oil) before summing; the same canonical codes appear in project data.

What the Portfolio tab shows

The Portfolio tab presents a project-level view of the company's reported assets, built from publicly disclosed information (technical reports, annual filings, MD&A, investor presentations, MRMR / R&R statements, NI 43-101 / NI 51-101 / SEC S-K 1300 / SEC S-K 1200 / JORC / SAMREC / PERC / PRMS / COGEH filings, and similar primary sources).
Figures are grouped by project type (mining, oil & gas, royalty, stream, processing facility, development, portfolio aggregate) and are shown alongside the headline reserve base, headline production, headline grade / quality, cost benchmarks, estimated lifetime, commercial terms (for royalties / streams), operational capacity (for processing) and a single-figure rating where the underlying data supports one.
Each data table on the Portfolio tab is followed by ONE Assumptions footnote describing the modelling choices for that table; KPI stat-card assumptions appear in the bottom block instead. All legal and section disclaimers are merged into a single disclaimer list at the bottom of the Portfolio tab.

Concepts in your sector — Rare earths & critical minerals

TREO vs individual oxides. Deposits disclose TREO % with a basket (Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb, …). Value is dominated by magnet metals; TREO without the basket misses most of the economics.
Vanadium in V₂O₅. Reserves use % V₂O₅ or ppm; multiply V₂O₅ by 0.560 for V metal.
Niobium, tantalum, scandium, fluorspar each have their own chemistry idiom; the rating engine normalises within commodity family.

Portfolio tab — table guide

Portfolio KPIs — company-level headline numbers aggregated from the featured projects (project counts, attributable annual production by commodity, attributable resource base by commodity, last filing date, operator share). USD value lines multiply attributable volumes by the resolved snapshot price.
Portfolio snapshot — one-screen summary of the portfolio: counts by type and status, country mix, reporting standards used, operator share, primary commodity, attributable annual production summary and attributable resource base summary.
Mining — one row per mining project, with columns for project name, location, status, primary commodities, production (with rating), reserves & resources (with rating), grade (with rating), costs and estimated lifetime. Multi-commodity projects emit one summary row per commodity.
Royalty — one row per royalty interest held by the company. Columns cover the underlying project, operator, commodity, commercial terms (rate, type, cap, area-of-interest), attributable production, attributable reserves and estimated lifetime.
Stream — one row per metal stream held by the company. Each row shows the underlying project, the streamed commodity, the headline stream percentage, the ongoing per-ounce / per-tonne payment, and attributable production / reserves.
Processing facilities — one row per midstream / processing facility (pipeline, fractionator, LNG train, storage cavern, refinery, smelter, mill, heap-leach pad, CPP, etc.). Columns include nameplate capacity, contracted capacity, feedstock commodities and operational footprint.
Development — projects in development status or in a pre-production lifecycle phase. The production column is re-labelled 'Targeted production (rating)' to highlight that the figures are plans, not actuals.
Portfolio Aggregate — a single company-level row used when the company itself publishes a portfolio rollup (e.g. company-wide 2P barrels across all properties).
Reserves & resources — detail — a leaf-category pivot showing every reserve and resource category disclosed across the projects.
NPV (grouped) — all NPV rows captured from the filings, grouped by commodity, resource category, development status and pricing case. Each NPV figure is shown with its discount rate, basis (before-tax / after-tax), currency and value scale.

Ownership / Working interest

Ownership percentage means the company's working-interest share of the asset: its slice of the project before royalties and before government take. It is shown on a 0–100 scale.
Mines, oil and gas fields, and processing facilities — this is how much of the asset belongs to the company under that working-interest idea. One hundred percent is fully owned; a lower number usually means partners share the rest.
Royalties and streaming agreements — the percentage is often not the story; what matters economically is usually the royalty or stream rate, shown elsewhere alongside these figures.
Oil and gas — read this as gross working interest only. Do not treat it as net production or net wells after royalties; when filings distinguish gross from net, that shows up in how the resource numbers themselves are labelled.
Below 100% — the short summary for each project names other owners and their stakes when the source says who they are.
NRI vs WI (O&G). Working interest (WI) is the obligation to pay a share of costs; net revenue interest (NRI) is the share of revenue after royalties and overriding-royalty interests. A 100% WI well rarely produces 100% NRI; typical onshore U.S. NRI is 75–87.5% of WI depending on the lease royalty.
Operator vs non-operator. The operator runs day-to-day operations; non-operating partners pay their WI share of costs but do not run the asset. Some Portfolio rows show operator share where disclosed.

Units, conversions & reporting standards

Unit codes, conversion cheat sheets, cost benchmarks (AISC, C1–C3), reporting standards (NI 43-101, JORC, SEC S-K 1300) and resource/reserve category definitions live in the full terminology & units reference.