Bayan Mining Validates 14x Yttrium Boost as China Export Ban Sends Prices Soaring

Independent testwork validates Bayan’s yttrium separation technology

Bench-scale testwork at the University of Queensland (UQ) has delivered the first independent validation of Bayan Mining and Minerals’ (ASX: BMM) licensed Yttrium Upgrade Technology, achieving up to a 14x increase in yttrium concentration and a 2x purity upgrade from a synthetic heavy rare earth feed solution. The results arrive at a moment of acute supply stress: since China introduced export licensing on yttrium and six other medium and heavy rare earths in April 2025, yttrium oxide prices outside China have risen roughly 140-fold, according to Argus data cited by Reuters.

What the bench-scale results actually show

Two upgrade mechanisms confirmed

The testwork confirmed yttrium separation operating at two distinct, additive stages of the ion-exchange process.

In the loading stage (Run 5), yttrium is preferentially excluded from bonding to the iminodiacetic acid (IDA) functionalised resin as the rare earth solution passes through the column. The best conditions identified were 70°C loading temperature and 30°C stripping temperature, both at a flow rate of 2 bed volumes per hour. This exclusion effect delivered a 2x yttrium purity upgrade in the loading column effluent.

In the stripping stage (Run 6), a dilute 10 g/L HCl weak acid strip preferentially releases yttrium from the resin. The result: a 14x increase in yttrium concentration and a 2x purity upgrade compared with the feed solution. Yttrium represented 87% of total rare earth elements (TREE) in the selective eluate. Both effects were observed consistently across all six column runs, confirming the separation behaviour is repeatable across varied conditions.

Run summary

The table below summarises the six runs completed under the Phase 1 Research Program, sourced directly from Table 1 in the ASX announcement.

Sampling frequency increased for Runs 5 and 6.

Why yttrium matters — and why supply is broken

Yttrium is a rare earth element used across a wide range of industrial and advanced applications: thermal barrier coatings for gas turbines, ceramics, lasers, phosphors, catalysts, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment relevant to AI and data centre chip production. It is not a commodity most investors track — but it underpins some of the most capital-intensive infrastructure being built right now.

The supply picture is deeply concentrated. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports that China supplied 93% of U.S. yttrium compound imports between 2020 and 2023, with nearly all yttrium metal and compounds derived from mineral concentrates processed in China.

That concentration became a crisis in April 2025, when China introduced export licensing on yttrium and six other medium and heavy rare earths. Since then, yttrium oxide prices outside China have risen roughly 140-fold, according to Argus data cited by Reuters. Shipments of yttrium, dysprosium and terbium have remained approximately 50% below pre-control levels, according to The Oregon Group (June 2026). For any company holding viable ex-China separation technology, that supply disruption is a direct commercial opening.

How the Yttrium Upgrade Technology works

The Yttrium Upgrade Technology uses an ion-exchange process built around a specialised resin. Ion exchange is an established technique in hydrometallurgy — it is used industry-wide, alongside solvent extraction, to separate mixed rare earth streams into individual high-purity elements. Here is how Bayan’s licensed version works in plain terms:

1. Loading: A mixed rare earth liquor is passed through a column packed with an IDA-functionalised resin (three-dimensional macroporous polymer beads with iminodiacetic acid groups). The resin selectively binds other rare earth elements while excluding yttrium, which passes through into the effluent at elevated purity.
2. Stripping: A dilute acid solution (10 g/L HCl) is then passed through the same column, which preferentially releases yttrium that had bonded to the resin, producing a yttrium-enriched eluate.
3. Modular design: Because loading and stripping operate as a single, modular process step, the technology is designed to be integrated into an existing rare earth separation circuit without requiring a full flowsheet redesign, supporting a capital-efficient pathway to a dedicated yttrium product stream.

The underlying patent is US Patent 10,696,562 B2, exclusively licensed to Bayan and originally developed at the Colorado School of Mines. The Phase 1 Research Program is being led by Professor James Vaughan and UQ’s Hydrometallurgy Research Group, established under a research agreement announced on 1 July 2026. Professor Vaughan serves as the Competent Person for the program.

Commercialisation pathway and next steps

Two integration opportunities

The technology has now been tested across both light rare earth (LREE) and heavy rare earth (HREE) assemblages, presenting two distinct pathways for integration into existing processing flowsheets:

• In an LREE circuit, the technology could be used to produce an upgraded yttrium mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC).
• In existing solvent-extraction (SX) circuits, the technology could be used to produce a concentrated yttrium stream and an HREE stream reduced in yttrium and hence overall loading, resulting in a significantly smaller HREE separation circuit.

Both pathways are designed to avoid a full flowsheet redesign, which is the core commercial advantage for prospective customers seeking to add yttrium recovery to existing infrastructure without major capital expenditure.

Bayan’s Sheep Creek rare earth processing partnership in Montana reflects the same integration-first logic: securing processing relationships with existing rare earth operations rather than building standalone infrastructure from the ground up.

Immediate next steps

Bayan has outlined the following planned next steps for the Yttrium Upgrade Technology:

1. Source additional MREC and HREE feedstocks from Australian and international rare earth developers and producers, to assess the technology across a wider range of rare earth compositions.
2. Undertake conformity testwork using the Amberlite IRC-748 resin and validate against a specific Mines patent example, building on the six process runs completed to date.
3. Test REE liquor with a metal composition representative of bastnaesite sourced from the Mountain Pass deposit, California, to assess process performance against an additional commercially significant ore type.
4. Refine the scope of a potential Stage 2 Research Program with UQ based on the technical results generated during Phase 1.

Bayan holds exclusive licences to four rare earth processing patents originally developed at the Colorado School of Mines in total. The Yttrium Upgrade Technology sits within a broader IP portfolio that also includes patents covering rare earth leaching, flotation and gravity concentration beneficiation, and ancylite rare earth beneficiation.

CEO comment

Nathan Kong, Chief Executive Officer, Bayan Mining and Minerals

“This bench-scale program delivers the first independent validation of Bayan’s licensed Yttrium Upgrade Technology, demonstrating its ability to selectively upgrade yttrium purity from a representative mixed rare earth feed solution, achieving up to a two-fold purity increase in the loading stage effluent, and a 14x yttrium concentration increase in the initial stripping elution from a representative synthetic heavy rare earth feedstock. These results confirm the commercial potential of the technology to improve yttrium supply at a time when yttrium demand is accelerating on the back of AI and data centre infrastructure build-out. We plan to expand the program across additional mixed and heavy rare earth feed compositions to broaden its commercial application and generate the technical data needed for a potential pilot-scale program.”

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