RER announces progress for planned demo plant

Rare Element Resources (RER) announced this week that its demonstration plant project is advancing towards final detailed engineering while the location for the plant in Upton is prepared for construction.

According to a statement from the company, the project has just passed the 60% design milestone and the final detailed engineering is scheduled for completion this year. Permitting and licensing activities are underway, while equipment and services with a long lead time are being made now in order to minimize the effects of inflation and supply chain bottlenecks.

Meanwhile, the previously leased location in Upton where RER plans to construct its demonstration plant is being prepared by the site owner.

“We are very pleased that our rare earth demonstration plant project is progressing toward planned construction next summer. Permitting and licensing are now underway with several permits already received and others under agency review,” says Randall Scott, President and CEO.

“The General Atomics-led team recently completed a key design milestone with the Department of Energy, which is funding approximately one-half of the $44 million project budget. We understand the importance of this project for the establishment of a domestic rare earth supply, which is of vital important to our nation.”

According to George Byers, consultant to RER, the company anticipates completing the plant design by the end of the year and the permitting activities in the second quarter of 2023. Construction, he says, is expected to be complete within 12 months after that time.

Rare earth ore from the Bearlodge deposit that was recovered in 2015 is stockpiled at the anticipated future mine site near Sundance, he says. Once the plant is complete, it will process and separate the rare earth elements from this stockpile for around eight to 12 months.

According to the company’s statement, the demo plant will utilize RER’s proprietary processing and separation technology, a closed-cycle process with fewer steps that it claims has environmental benefits and lower costs when compared with current technologies.

The plant is expected to produce a commercial-grade neodymium/praseodymium high-purity oxide that is used in high-strength permanent magnets, which in turn are used to manufacture such items as electric vehicles and wind turbines.

“We continue to work diligently with the State of Wyoming, the University of Wyoming, and the Town of Upton to ensure our demonstration project becomes a cornerstone for the rare earth industry in Wyoming and America, while providing a venue for worker training in rare earth processing and separation,” says Scott.

Around half the funding for the demonstration plant came from an award RER received on October 1, 2021 from the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewal Energy. The remaining $21.9 million was raised at the end of last year through a rights offering.