Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd. to announce that work on the Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Phalaborwa rare earths project ("Phalaborwa") in South Africa has commenced. Independent test work carried out to date has confirmed that the phosphogypsum at Phalaborwa is amenable to direct leaching with sulphuric acid for extraction of the contained rare earths. The resultant pregnant leach solution, after acid recovery, will be a suitable feedstock for purification and separation of the valuable rare earths. The PEA will compare a conventional route to produce a Cerium-depleted mixed rare earths carbonate versus an alternative flow sheet that bypasses the carbonate stage and delivers three higher value products, comprising NdPr oxide, Tb oxide and Dy oxide. The results will then guide the direction for development of a pre-feasibility study. The scope of the PEA has been enlarged from the original plan to now include a downstream processing step, as an alternative to the original flowsheet which will produce a mixed rare earth carbonate. This is possible at Phalaborwa owing to the fact that the rare earths contained in the phosphogypsum are in a "cracked" chemical form. Further downstream processing to separate and purify individual oxides is anticipated to deliver the following benefits compared to a traditional flowsheet: The enhanced flowsheet is expected to be capable of delivering a higher value product, delivering the full value of the separated rare earth metal oxides. By comparison, Rainbow's Gakara project produces a high-grade mineral concentrate, which has been sold to China for further downstream beneficiation/processing, realising approximately 30% of the contained rare earths metal oxide value. The traditional flowsheet at Phalaborwa would produce a mixed rare earth carbonate, realising approximately 60% - 65% of the contained metal oxide value, compared to 100% of the metal oxide value would achieve by going further downstream to produce separated individual oxides as a per the enlarged PEA scope of work.