US Develops Monazite Sands to Increase Rare Earth Supply

Neo Performance Materials (Neo) and Energy Fuels Inc. (Energy Fuels) have launched a new rare earth production initiative spanning European and the US critical material supply chains. The plan will use natural monazite sands, a by-product of heavy mineral sands in the southeastern United States, to produce value-added products.

Neo is a company for developing REEs, the company makes the building blocks of modern technologies that enhance efficiency and sustainability. Its products help to deliver the technologies of tomorrow to consumers today. Energy Fuels is the leading U.S. producer of uranium. The company is expected to see strong growth in the coming years.

In Utah, Energy Fuels will process monazite ore into mixed rare-earth carbonate, which will provide raw materials for Neo's separation plant in Estonia. Neo further processed the carbonates into products used in permanent magnets and other advanced materials based on rare earth elements (REEs). The company's Silmet plant is the only separation facility in production in Europe.

Once it reaches a commercial scale, this new supply chain is expected to use US monazite as a raw material to produce REE materials for the first time in 20 years. The value of typical monazite ore is higher than that of other REE-containing ore, it contains more than 50% - 60% of total rare earth content, and it also contains 0.2% -0.3% recoverable natural uranium, which is the typical grade of uranium that have historically fed the White Mesa Mill.

This means that in addition to extracting high-grade rare-earth concentrates from monazite ore, the White Mesa concentrator can also extract uranium, and Energy Fuels can sell its products to nuclear power plants. Neo can produce rare-earth carbonates from natural monazite sands produced by Chemours operating in the US, which has a contract to supply 2,500 tons of ore produced in Georgia and elsewhere in the southeastern United States.

According to the results of the commercial-scale pilot project of the White Mesa concentrator, Neo's Silmet separation plant can process at least 840 tons of REE oxides from Energy Fuels every year based on the current capacity. This is equivalent to 80% of Energy Fuels' current production obtained from Chemours.

Energy Fuels is also seeking to obtain supplies of other monazite ore, with the goal of achieving an annual processing capacity of 15,000 tons. This is equivalent to 2% of White Mesa's current production capacity, but it can meet half of the current demand for rare earth in the United States. Energy Fuels said that in addition to the US, other countries with large-scale monazite sands companies include Australia, India and South Africa.

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