American Rare Earths Partners US Research Organizations to Develop Rare Earth Processing Technology

American Rare Earths Ltd (ARR) has partnered with leading U.S. research and development institutions to develop new rare earth processing technology for bio-based, sustainable rare earth element (REE) extraction, separation, and purification.

ARR's U.S. subsidiary Western Rare Earths (WRE) is collaborating with researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and the University of Arizona (UA) to extract and purify rare earths from abundant domestic ore feedstock and waste materials using a naturally occurring protein without causing environmental damage.

"Currently, China produces most of the rare earth elements, including yttrium and scandium. The lack of reliable, large-scale, and long-term supply severely limits the commercial application of scandium, and we need to explore and leverage new resources and technologies to build a domestic supply chain of scandium and yttrium for next-generation clean energy technologies," said LLNL scientist Dan Park, who is the principal investigator on the project.

In this project, funded by the Department of Energy (DoE) Critical Materials Institute, researchers turned to the protein lanmodulin, which was discovered by Joseph Cotruvo, a member of PSU's Critical Minerals Center team.

Through a collaboration between LLNL, PSU, UA, and WRE, the team plans to develop a scalable, all-water, protein-based method for high-purity recovery of the rare earth elements scandium and yttrium from low-grade, abundant domestic dolomite ores.

"Researchers affiliated with CMI, LLNL, UA and Penn State's Critical Minerals Center are a competitive advantage in the mission to ensure this supply chain," said Marty Weems, CEO of Western Rare Earths and president of Rare Earths USA North America.

"The prospect of this sustainable, reusable and highly efficient process to extract, separate and purify scandium, yttrium and individual high-value rare earth magnetic metals could revolutionize the industry."

The team's lanmodulin-based approach offers several advantages over previous methods, including compatibility with low-grade leachates, elimination of hazardous solvents, and the ability to achieve high-purity separations of certain key rare earth elements.

Chris Gibbs, CEO and Managing Director of Rare Earths USA, said, "The hard work of the U.S. team, led by Marty Weems, has established us in some of the top rare earth innovation programs." Thanks to the team's efforts, we are well-positioned to play our part and be at the forefront of new rare earth processing technology.

"As we develop world-class mining projects, our strategy is to build our processing and refining capabilities while also focusing on new and disruptive technologies."

American Rare Earths owns the highly prospective La Paz Rare Earth Project, located 170 kilometers northwest of Phoenix, Arizona. The project has a resource of 128.2 million tons at 0.037% total rare earth elements, is located less than 30 meters below the surface and is contained within only 525 acres of the ARR's total 5,143-acre La Paz, indicating potential resource upside.

The Critical Materials Institute, a U.S. Energy Innovation Hub led by Ames Laboratory, aims to accelerate innovative science and technology solutions to develop resilient and secure supply chains for rare earth metals and other materials critical to the success of clean energy technologies.

The research team includes Park and Ziye Dong from LLNL, Cotruvo and Sarma Pisupati from Penn State University, Hongyue Jin from the University of Arizona and Weems from Western Rare Earths.

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