The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Metal Tech News - July 31, 2023
Rare Element's Bear Lodge project in Wyoming offers a high-grade source of rare earth elements critical to a wide range of high-tech, energy transition, and defense applications. Clockwise from top center: praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium, and gadolinium.
Surpassing another major milestone on its path to offering a long-term, reliable, and sustainable domestic supply of separated rare earth elements, Rare Element Resources Ltd. has been issued a license necessary to process previously stockpiled material at its Bear Lodge project in Wyoming.
Located in an area of northeastern Wyoming with good infrastructure and low-cost power, Bear Lodge hosts 18 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 3.05% (1.2 billion lb) rare earth oxides. Not only is this deposit large and high-grade, but it is enriched in neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and other REEs critical to electric vehicles, renewable energy, and a wide range of high-tech applications.
As impressive as this resource is, it would do little good unless it is paired with a processing plant capable of separating the rare earths into individual elements. This is where the newly issued license and a previously awarded $21.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy come in.
The license issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will allow Rare Element Resources to process stockpiles of high-grade rare earths material at a processing and separation demonstration plant to be built about 30 miles south of Bear Lodge in Upton, Wyoming.
"The issuance of this license is a key milestone for the company, and we thank the NRC for its rigorous review and timely completion of our application," said Rare Element Resources President and CEO Brent Berg. "I believe the growing awareness of the exposure our country faces due to China's monopoly on the rare earth supply chain has garnered ongoing support for our project."
The support for Rare Element's plans to develop a rare earth mine and processing facility in Wyoming has come from both the public and private sectors.
In 2021, DOE provided the company $21.9 million for the engineering, construction, and operation of a plant that demonstrates an innovative rare earths processing and separation technology pioneered by General Atomics, a defense and technologies company founded in 1955 as a division of General Dynamics.
General Atomic affiliate Synchron, which owns a 54.8% stake in Rare Element, previously processed 1.1 metric tons of Bear Lodge ore averaging roughly 10% total rare earth oxide through a pilot plant in Germany to produce 13.6 kilograms (30 pounds) of the neodymium-praseodymium oxide used in EV motors at commercial grade.
Rare Element says the innovative process has been further optimized and involves significantly fewer steps in a closed cycle that offers environmental and cost advantages over other REE separation technologies.
Now, with the award from DOE paying for half the estimated $44 million to build a demonstration plant in Upton, Rare Element is scaling this technology up with a demonstration plant that will process roughly 900 metric tons of ore averaging around 10% rare earth oxides already stockpiled at Bear Lodge.
The Upton demo plant received further backing from the Wyoming Energy Authority, which awarded the company an additional $4.4 million for the project.
"The need for domestic rare earth elements is a necessity for both our 'all-of-the-above' energy strategy and also our energy security," said Wyoming Energy Authority Executive Director Glen Murrell. "Given that Wyoming is home to one of the highest-grade rare earth deposits in North America, we felt supporting Rare Element Resources' demonstration plant in Upton was vital."
The combination of a high-grade mine and separation plant will put Wyoming on the map as a hub for the rare earths essential to the high-strength permanent magnets for EVs, wind turbines, and electronic devices; laser systems for medical technology and defense; as well as tech applications such as fiber optics and solar panels.
"We understand, as does Wyoming, that our project will serve as a cornerstone for the rare earth industry in Wyoming and America while providing a venue for worker training in rare earth processing and separation," said Berg.
With the NRC source materials license in hand, subject to DOE review, federal permitting for the demonstration plant is now complete. One state permit remains outstanding, which is expected in August.
"Construction of the Demonstration Plant could begin as early as November 2023," said Berg. "Following our planned construction period, we could see plant operations begin as early as summer 2024 – moving us one step closer to our goal of creating a secure, domestic source of separated and refined rare earths."
With the demo plant slated to start in the next year, Rare Element can begin looking at a commercial operation that fully unlocks the larger rare earth potential at Bear Lodge.
The current measured and indicated resources at this project would provide enough high-grade ore to support an operation that could produce roughly 6,800 metric tons (15 million lb) of rare earth oxides annually over a 45-year mine life, according to a prefeasibility study completed in 2014.
"As we progress our demonstration plant through licensing, construction, and operations in the near-term, we will plan for the advancement of a commercial-scale plant to support the Bear Lodge deposit in the future," said Berg.
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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