Rhodia, Tantalus to Cooperate on Madagaskar Rare Earth Project

Rhodia, member of the Solvay group, and Tantalus Rare Earths are pleased to announce the signing of a Letter of Intent ("LOI") relating to technical cooperation for the development of an optimal process for generating rare earth concentrates from the large near surface Tantalus rare earth project in Madagascar and the exclusive supply of these rare earth products to Rhodia.

The Tantalus project is emerging as one of the largest clay hosted rare earth resources outside of China, with 130Mt of rare earth oxide ("REO") bearing clays already identified from a small portion of the project area on the Ampasindava Peninsula in north-western Madagascar. Analysis of the Tantalus material has shown that approximately 20% of the REO's are in the valuable "heavy" category.

The LOI will be followed by a definitive Technical Cooperation Agreement and Offtake Agreement for up to 15,000 tons per annum of rare earth products from Tantalus.