Upton site ready for RER demo plant

Rare Element Resources (RER) released a progress report this week on construction of its demo plant in Upton. Despite budget issues caused by inflation, the company expects to begin operation at the end of the summer.

It’s been all systems go at the site since RER’s ground breaking ceremony last October. Shortly after, the company announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) had finalized its review of the demo plant that the company anticipates will soon be built in Upton, officially completing the federal permitting process prior to construction.

“All activities are moving us toward the goal of plant startup in the next few months,” said Ken Mushinski, the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

“With an operations manager in place and operations contractor selection underway, we are now starting to transition from design and construction to operations.”

At this time, RER says the brownfield site upgrades are all but finished, utility system upgrades are complete and systems for exterior catchment and sediment control and fire suppression are installed.

“Most exterior upgrades to the expansion of the building that will house the plant have been completed. Modular office trailers and a rock crusher for processing the feed sample were delivered to the site and are being installed,” states the announcement. 

“The company is proceeding with longer-lead time purchases to support operations, including by securing an operations contractor and purchasing chemicals and other consumables.”

To shorten the time to operations and allow for off-site testing before on-site assembly, an off-site integrator has constructed segments of the production line on skids. Each will arrive fully operational.   

“This modular design has the additional advantage of allowing individual skids to be repurposed for future commercial operations,” states the announcement. “The first pre-assembled skid arrived on site in early May 2024, with the remainder to be delivered this summer.”

An updated construction and operations budget has been submitted to the DOE. September 1 is the planned commencement date for operations, which are expected to last for up to a year.

“Updated estimates were included in the budget to address increased costs due to inflationary pressures on labor, equipment and consumables, as well as incorporating the optimized plant engineering and design parameters,” states the announcement.

“On the project team’s behalf, GA submitted a total project budget of approximately $53.6 million, which is approximately 21% higher than the original budget of approximately $44 million. The increase is roughly equal to the inflationary index over the duration of the project to date.”

According to RER, the DOE has been asked to support the growth of budgeted costs on the same 50% cost-share basis as previously agreed. RER says it’s prepared to use the proceeds from a recent rights offering to cover the cost increases for the updated project budget to make sure the plant can operate for enough time to gather the information necessary for a commercialization decision.

“The DOE is aware of the extraordinary inflationary pressures that have occurred since the project budget was initially estimated in 2021, and we are hopeful the DOE will contribute further cost-share funds to offset the increased financial costs of the project,” said Mushinski added.

“While we focus on the important next steps, including confirming a final budget and schedule with the DOE, we are pleased with the efforts and dedication of our partners in this project, including their subcontractors, which have led to the progress achieved thus far, and we look forward to the timely commencement of operations.”

The operations phase is expected to require around 20 full-time employees and will make use of around 1000 tons of stockpiled material from the Bear Lodge Project near Sundance.