Production costs of competition
The table below is an example of the capital costs and the operating cost per tonne of TREO for the leading rare earth companies outside of China. The average in-situ estimated TREO is 1.8 million tonnes as compared to Jongju’s estimated 216.18 million tonnes of TREO.
The average opex per kg is $11.37 or $11,370 per tonne.
Capex and Cost of Production for Publicly Listed Rare Earth Companies
| Company Name | Ticker | In Situ TREO Mt |
Life of Mine (yr.) |
Annual Profit |
Total $m | Capex Conc. $m |
Sep. $m | Opex kg TREO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Molycorp | MCP-US | 2.1 | 30 | 40,000 | 894 | N/A | N/A | 2.77 |
| Lynas | LYC-AU | 1.5 | 20 | 22,000 | 1,034 | 138 | 567 | 10.11 |
| Frontier Rare Minerals | FRO-T | 0.9 | 20 | 20,000 | 938 | 220 | 611 | 13.08 |
| Greenland Minerals | GGG-AU | 6.5 | 23 | 7,000 | 2,295 | 322 | N/A | 3,36 |
| Arafura | ARU-AU | 0.8 | 20 | 20,000 | 903 | N/A | N/A | 17,86 |
| Hudson Resources | HUD-V | 0.2 | 21 | 6,500 | 412 | 136 | N/A | 6.74 |
| Rare Element Resources | RES-T | 0.8 | 19 | 10,400 | 446 | 200 | N/A | 8 |
| Avalon | AVL-T | 4.3 | 20 | 10,000 | 1,141 | 535 | 300 | 22.51 |
| Matamec | MAT-V | 0.1 | 13 | 5,072 | 371 | 86 | N/A | 17.27 |
| Qust Rare Minerals | QRM-T | 2.1 | 20 | 13,200 | 855 | 199 | N/A | 15.99 |
| Alkane | ALK-AU | 0.7 | 20 | 4,170 | 399 | 236 | N/A | 7.44 |
| Average | 123456 | 1.8 | 20.5 | 14,344 | 880 | 230 | 492 | 11.37 |
Jongju benefits from a significant advantage due to the fact that its mine is open pit and will operate a centralised rare earth processing plant for the whole of the DPRK. This plant will be in one geographical location and will deal with all of the processing and separation of any other rare earths that are subsequently discovered in other regions of the DPRK.
In addition, the other critical metals and associated minerals that are present in the Jongju ore will be extracted at the same time as the rare earths are processed. Jongju will therefore have a significantly more productive yield than most current rare earth companies.
With increased yield a central processing facility and the benefit of an extensive R&D program coupled with low labour costs and a highly educated and experienced workforce, Jongju will have the lowest cost of production in the rare earth industry. This is also supported by the full co-operation of the DPRK government and all of their academic institutions and universities.
