The richest woman in Australia is backing a new rare earth element mining company.
What’s happening:
- Brazilian Rare Earths is set to IPO on the Australian Stock Exchange at a valuation of approximately $220 million USD
- Gina Rinehart, who is a legendary mining financier and Australia’s wealthiest woman, is one of the largest backers of the company
Why it matters:
- Rare earth elements have a wide range of important applications but are notoriously difficult to extract from the Earth due to requiring complex separation processes
Going deeper:
- One of the most important applications of rare earth elements are their function as a permanent magnet, which are used across electric vehicles, MRI machines, wind turbine gearboxes and more
- Rare earth elements are typically extracted from either hard rock or iconic clay deposits and then separated through a solvent extraction process
By the numbers:
- The IPO on the Australian Stock Exchange will see Brazilian Rare Earth’s raise approximately $21M USD in new capital
- There are 17 different types of rare earth elements on the periodic table, which are differentiated by light rare earth elements and heavy rare earth elements
- Roughly 90% of the supply of rare earth elements are consumed by electric vehicles and wind turbines
