American Resources Completes Commissioning of Rare Earths and Battery Materials Facility in Indiana

American Resources Corporation's (AREC) American Rare Earth division has wrapped up the commissioning of its Indiana rare earths separation and purification facility, as well as its battery materials facility.

AREC said the completion of the first phase of commissioning at its rare earth facility in Indiana paves the way for initial production. AREC told shareholders that the commissioning phase of the processing facility was focused on ensuring that flow rates, pressurization and valves were operating as expected. AREC signed an offtake and financial partnership agreement to start up the Carnegie 2 mine.

The first production train will recycle end-of-life rare earths magnets to produce magnet-grade neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium with a purity of over 99.5%, while the second production train will recycle black blocks from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries to produce high purity battery-grade lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel and graphite.

AREC is currently completing the preparation of its columns and moving toward production separation and purification of rare earths. American Resources CEO Mark Jensen said in a statement, "This is an extremely exciting accomplishment for our team to be on track to test and complete water commissioning and stress testing of our initial rare earth and battery material purification facility."

Jensen said, "This is a very exciting time to be able to advance the domestic rare earth and battery material supply chain away from dependence on foreign supplies of these critical materials, and we believe this facility and technology will replace the environmentally and socially toxic solvent extraction method, using a fraction of the space and input to separate and purify rare earth and battery elements."

Jensen added that AREC will now move forward with the initial production of the magnet metal needed to make the electric motor run efficiently, as well as the initial battery material production train. AREC estimates that it will complete its battery material line, which has the capacity to purify individual battery elements, by the end of the third quarter of this year.

AREC forecasts to expand its initial facility and Phase II rare earths and battery materials plant to process more than five tons of magnet-g material per day over the next five years, and to scale up its technology to produce 10 to 15 tons of battery-grade material per day from recycled black briquettes over the next three to five years.

American Resources Corporation is a supplier of raw materials to the new infrastructure and electrification market. The products are mainly steel, alloys, magnets, Lithium-ion batteries, and metals used to support global development and socio-economic progress to create a more efficient economic environment.

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