RER celebrates groundbreaking

Rare Element Resources (RER) held a ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony on Monday for its demonstration separation and processing plant in Upton.

A crowded room of local and state officials and community members from both Crook and Weston counties filled the community center to listen to remarks from dignitaries including RER's CEO Brent Berg and newly appointed Director Paul Hickey.

Also present was General Atomics CEO Neal Blue – who described Wyoming as his favorite place to do business "in terms of getting things done" – and his brother Linden Blue, CEO of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.

"We all know that this project had some challenges in the past and after General Atomics came into this partnership with RER, the company got on a stronger footing," said Hickey.

Along with those GA and its affiliate Synchron, Quantum Energy and the company's shareholders, said Berg, "The great State of Wyoming, the community of Upton [and] Weston and Crook Counties are going to deliver to this country the cornerstone for a rare earth element supply chain."

"What a partnership this is. We wouldn't be here, and we mean this sincerely, without all of this local support at the county level, the city level, the town level, and all of the support at the state and federal level," said Hickey.

Blue stressed the importance of the particular rare earth elements found in the Bear Lodge deposit in Crook County.

"The permanent magnet motor is what it's all about," Blue said. These are used in such things as electric vehicles, he explained, and are "vitally important" to the launch and recovery systems of the USS Gerald R. Ford that was at that moment being called to move closer to Israel and the Gaza Strip in response to the declaration of war in that region.

"The permanent magnet motor is the future of electronic propulsion. It's simpler, more reliable and somewhat more economic," said Blue. "Beyond that, the rare earths are significant because they are vitally essential for all of the very advanced microprocessor technology and fabrication where you're reducing the future size of micro-electronics to the near-atomic level."

China currently has an 85% monopoly on oxide production, said Blue, and a 95% representation in the processing of oxides to convert them into metal to be used in alloys with iron to produce the permanent magnet motors.

This, Blue said, is why U.S. Senator John Barrasso and others have been dedicated to helping the United States develop, "some measure of independent capability to survive in the business of producing permanent magnet motors and the ancillary rare earths required for this process."

Barrasso meanwhile praised the decision to base the operation in northeast Wyoming and spoke to the importance of not relying on China for critical minerals.

"China is truly trying to have a monopoly...and they have about a 15- or 20-year head start on us," he said. "We have not kept up and I would just say never again can we ever find ourselves beholden to China for anything – ever."

The demo plant represents the next step of RER's journey towards operating a rare earth mine and processing plant, with the mine itself in the Bear Lodge Mountains just outside Sundance.

RER will make use of previously stockpiled material from the Bear Lodge Project in the operation of the demo plant. An estimate 1000 tons of ore from the site will be transported to the plant's location in Upton.

According to RER's estimates, construction could begin as early as next month and the plant may be operational as early as next summer.