The Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC) share price is soaring, up 7.65% in afternoon trade.
Below we take a look at what's driving investor interest in the ASX rare earths explorer.
What did Lynas report today?
The Lynas share price is rocketing after the company reported it had received a $14.8 million grant from the Australian government's Modern Manufacturing Initiative.
Lynas received the grant after passing through the selection process, which makes up part of the first round of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative's Manufacturing Translation Stream for Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Processing.
Via the grants, the government is working to facilitate converting valuable research into commercially viable outcomes.
The company expects the grant to cover roughly half the costs of implementing and commercialising its "industry-first rare earth carbonate refining process", which was developed by its own research team.
It said tests at bench scale had demonstrated that the process effectively produced higher purity rare earth carbonate, which can feed its Lynas Malaysia plant and its proposed United States rare earth processing facility.
Lynas will install the new process during construction of its $500 million Kalgoorlie Rare Earth Processing Facility project.
Commenting on the grant, Amanda Lacaze, Lynas' CEO said:
We're excited to bring this world-first Rare Earth carbonate refining process to Kalgoorlie with the support of the Australian government. Its commercialisation is the culmination of significant research and development by our inhouse team.
In keeping with our commitment to the efficient use of industry capital, this process has been designed to treat our own Mt Weld concentrate and concentrate from 3rd party feedstock as other projects come on line in the future.
Lynas share price snapshot
ASX rare earths shares have broadly had a strong year, as the world looks to diversify supply away from China, which produces some 80% of the annual global supply of rare earths.
The Lynas share price has been on a tear over the past 12 months, up a whopping 205%. By comparison the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has gained 21% over that same time.
Year-to-date the Lynas share price has continued to outperform, up 52% so far in 2021.
