Energy Fuels Achieves Commercial Production of NdPr at White Mesa Mill
Energy Fuels announced on Monday that it has achieved commercial production of separated neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) at its White Mesa mill in Utah. These rare earth elements, crucial for magnets in EVs and military technologies, will be produced at the company’s new Phase 1 REE separation circuit with an annual capacity of 850 to 1,000 metric tonnes.
The company expects to have commercial quantities of NdPr available for shipment by the end of the month. This marks the first time in several decades that a US company has produced on-spec separated REEs from monazite commercially.
Energy Fuels is extracting, refining, and separating NdPr from monazite at its heavy mineral sand operations in Florida and Georgia. The Phase 1 REE separation circuit, completed in Q1 2024 at a cost of about $16 million, came in under the original budget of $25 million. The company expects to produce about 25 to 35 tonnes of on-spec separated NdPr in Q2 2024.
The addition of REE separation has not hindered the company's ability to produce uranium. Energy Fuels plans to start processing uranium ore and alternate feed materials in Q3 2024, aiming for 150,000 to 500,000 pounds of U3O8 in 2024, with production ramping up further in 2025.
Energy Fuels also expects to produce a samarium-plus (Sm+) concentrate from the new circuit, using this to continue pilot-scale dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb) separation. This aims to design circuits capable of producing these rare earth products in separated individual forms. Currently, no company in the Western Hemisphere can commercially produce separated, on-spec Dy, Tb, or other heavy REE products.
