Having announced its intention to only supply offtakers in the Europe and the US with rare earth materials earlier last month, ASX-listed Viridis Mining and Metals has secured a letter of intent (LoI) with Belgian-French multinational chemical company Solvay, involving the strategic supply of rare earths by 2028.

Solvay and Viridis, the former of which has projects in Brazil, Canada and Australia, are working towards finalizing a definitive sourcing agreement.

Under the terms of the LoI, Viridis is expected to supply critical rare earth feedstocks from its Colossus mine, in Brazil, to Solvay’s La Rochelle plant, in France. Viridis is ramping up the Colossus mine and its rare earth processing centre in Pocos de Caldas to steady-state production by the end of 2028.

Solvay will provide recognised rare earth separation expertise and processing technology to accelerate feedstock supply from Brazil.

This collaboration would leverage Solvay’s advanced processing, separation and formulation capabilities to refine rare earth raw materials into the individual high-purity oxide elements essential for electric vehicle motors, renewable energy, advanced electronics and defence systems.

The feedstock includes key rare earths for permanent magnets, notably neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, supporting increasing global demand.

It contains an important distribution of additional heavy rare earths, such as samarium, gadolinium and yttrium, used in critical advanced technology sectors such as automotive, electronics, medical and aerospace applications.

Solvay’s La Rochelle facility is one of the largest rare earth separation plants outside China and one of the few sites worldwide capable of processing all rare earth elements at industrial scale.

The partnership supports Solvay’s broader ambition to scale up production capacity and contribute to the development of a more resilient rare earth value chain.

"This proposed transaction would mark a significant milestone in strengthening and diversifying our upstream supply chain," says Solvay special chemicals president An Nuyttens.

"By partnering with Viridis, we would ensure another reliable source of raw materials that would allow us to maximise our processing capacity and meet the growing global demand for high-purity, sustainably processed rare earth elements. This includes industrial scale separation of dysprosium and terbium by September 2026 at our La Rochelle site,” she adds.

Solvay maintains its target of supplying 30% of the European market for magnet-grade light and heavy rare earths by 2030.

In turn, Viridis MD and CEO Rafael Moreno comments that partnering with Solvay would allow the company to connect its resource base with one of the most advanced rare earth processing platforms globally.

“Together, we would be advancing a more diversified and responsible supply of critical materials to support rapidly growing global demand.”