Colorado-based rare earth and critical mineral producer Energy Fuels has confirmed it has successfully developed the technology it believes is required to produce six of the seven rare earth oxides, at scale, that are now subject to newly enacted Chinese export controls.
The announcement comes ongoing trade tension between the U.S. and China. Energy Fuels said that its White Mesa Mill in Utah currently has the commercial capacity to process monazite ore concentrates into separated neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide.
Through ongoing testing at White Mesa, the company has found it has the technical expertise to design, construct, and commission the expansion of its existing infrastructure to produce the rare earth oxides from monazite relatively quickly with appropriate U.S. government support and/or market conditions.
President and CEO Mark Chalmers said Energy Fuels is in a unique position to “quickly help fill many of the gaps President Trump identifies in his Critical Mineral Executive Order” because of its long history of producing uranium and vanadium oxides a White Mesa.
“Last year we successfully launched commercial rare earth processing capacity at the mill, showing the world that our technology and infrastructure works at scale. We now have the data, knowledge and much of the infrastructure in place to produce ‘light’, ‘mid’ and ‘heavy’ rare earth oxides at scale at the White Mesa Mill.
“We encourage the U.S. government to showcase its commitment to American rare earth manufacturing with focused support to proven companies like Energy Fuels that have made significant investments in the critical mineral space and demonstrated their ability to commercially produce the critical minerals our country needs.”
Energy Fuels has developed light, mid, and heavy REE production capabilities at its White Mesa Mill since 2020. It believes it is one of the only U.S. companies capable of delivering on President Trump’s executive order in the relative short-term on these critical elements.
Since it began performing lab- and pilot-scale REE separations in 2021 and commissioned commercial-scale NdPr separation in 2024 (up to 1,000 tonnes per year NdPr capacity), the company has developed significant real-time data, experience, and knowhow applicable to separating REE oxides, including the mid and heavy oxides subject to the Chinese export controls. Based on this work, Energy Fuels believes it is now technically capable of designing, constructing, and operating the solvent extraction (SX) circuits, and performing all of the hydrometallurgical steps necessary to perform the REE separations of samarium (Sm), gadolinium (Gd), dysprosium (Dy), terbium (Tb), lutetium (Lu) and yttrium (Y) oxides, within as early as a 12-month period.
Source: http://www.energyfuels.com