Does the physics pay for itself?

This is a micro-level, marginal analysis. It estimates the economics of adding one continuous sonochemical beneficiation stage to an existing conventional flowsheet at a single illustrative plant: 100 t/day throughput, 0.5% REE grade, $90/kg NdPr. Every figure is a literature-derived placeholder — a framework to reason with, not a commercial quote.

To claim these numbers apply to every mine, grade, or price environment would obviously be false. Deposit chemistry, scale, energy cost, labour regimes, and existing infrastructure all shift the economics. What this model is useful for is showing the directional leverage of recovery uplift in a continuous intensification stage, and how sensitive that leverage is to price and recovery assumptions.

At a macro scale, the picture is different — and much larger. The global rare-earth industry loses a significant share of in-situ REE value to recovery shortfalls and reagent intensity across thousands of tonnes per day. If continuous intensification can recover even a few additional percentage points across a meaningful share of that throughput, the aggregate annual value creation runs into the billions. This model is one small, rigorously bounded step toward understanding that larger opportunity.