UUUU - Energy Fuels Achieves Commercial Production of 'On-Spec' Separated Rare Earths at its White Mesa Mill in Utah While Simultaneously Advancing Uranium Production | Benzinga
LAKEWOOD, Colo., June 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU) (TSX:EFR) ("Energy Fuels" or the "Company"), a leading U.S. producer of uranium, rare earth elements ("REEs"), and vanadium, is pleased to announce that it has achieved commercial production of separated neodymium-praseodymium ("NdPr") at its White Mesa Mill in Utah (the "Mill"). Critically, the NdPr produced by Energy Fuels' meets the applicable product specifications of REE metal-makers, who specialize in the manufacture of REE-based alloys required for the permanent magnets widely used for electric motors in both battery powered electric vehicles ("EVs") and dual power hybrids. Further, this 'on-spec' NdPr is now able to be produced by Energy Fuels at the full design capacity of its new Phase 1 REE separation circuit (850 to 1,000 metric tons ("tonnes") of NdPr per year). The Company expects to have commercial quantities of separated NdPr available for shipment by the end of June 2024. Energy Fuels believes this is the first time in several decades that a U.S. company has produced on-spec separated REE's from monazite on a commercial scale.
The Company is extracting, refining and separating the NdPr from monazite produced by The Chemours Company ("Chemours") at its heavy mineral sand ("HMS") operations in Florida and Georgia. Energy Fuels began piloting REE separations in 2021, and later performed partial REE separations in 2022 and 2023. The Company used this experience, having compiled several years of real-time data, to custom design and construct its new Phase 1 REE separation circuit at the Mill, which is now operating as designed. The Company would also like to highlight both the speed at which the circuit has reached full design capacity, and the fact that it has not experienced complications with start-up, which are so typical with the commissioning of new equipment and processes. Energy Fuels also completed construction of its Phase 1 REE Separation Circuit in Q1-2024 for a total cost of only about $16 million, which was significantly under the original budget of $25 million and a further testament to the capabilities of the Mill and the years of solvent extraction ("SX") experience and technical expertise of Mill personnel. Also of note, the addition of REE separation processes has not hindered the ability or capacity of the Company to produce uranium at the Mill, and preparations are being made to commence a uranium ore and alternate feed uranium-bearing material processing campaign in Q3-2024.
During Q2-2024, the Company expects to produce about 25 to 35 tonnes of on-spec, separated NdPr from the monazite Energy Fuels has in inventory at this time. From the new circuit, Energy Fuels also expects to produce a samarium-plus ("Sm+"), "heavy" REE concentrate, while also recovering the contained uranium from the monazite feed stocks. The Company expects to utilize this Sm+ concentrate to continue pilot-scale dysprosium ("Dy") and terbium ("Tb") separation and to design SX circuits at the Mill able to produce these "heavy" REE products in separated individual forms at the specifications required for metal and alloy making. Currently, there is no company in the Western Hemisphere capable of commercially producing separated, on-spec Dy, Tb, or other "heavy" REE products. NdPr, Dy, and Tb are known as the "magnet" REE's, as they are key and necessary ingredients in the powerful magnets used in the most efficient EVs, dual power hybrid vehicles, direct-drive wind energy, military and defense technologies, and other clean energy applications.
Following completion of NdPr production at the Mill in Q2-2004, the Company expects to begin processing uranium ore and alternate feed materials from our current stockpiles, resulting in the expected production of 150,000 to 500,000 pounds of U3O8 during 2024, with production ramping up further in 2025. As previously announced, Energy Fuels has also acquired, or is in the process of acquiring, several HMS projects to secure monazite, which we believe will be globally cost-competitive, to supply future REE separation at the Mill. This includes the Bahia Project in Brazil that the Company acquired in February 2023, the Donald Project joint venture that the Company announced on June 3, 2024, and the pending acquisition of Base Resources and the Toliara Project in Madagascar, which in aggregate have the potential to make Energy Fuels one of the largest separated REE producers in the world. The Company expects to receive material quantities of monazite from these projects commencing as early as 2026. In the meantime, the Company plans to focus operations on an aggressive campaign of uranium production during the second half of 2024, all of 2025, and thereafter to supply U.S. uranium into the Company's portfolio of uranium contracts with U.S. nuclear utilities, in addition to additional spot and contract sales into uranium market strength.