- Ucore Rare Metals (TSXV:UCU), a micro-cap rare earths stock, has completed 60 per cent of its contract with the U.S. Department of Defense at its commercialization and demonstration facility in Kingston, Ontario
- The company is applying its 52-stage RapidSX technology to separate mixed heavy and light rare earth elements from mixed rare earth oxide with eyes on establishing a more sustainable North American supply chain
- Ucore is a specialist in rare- and critical-metal resource extraction, beneficiation and separation technologies with the potential for production, growth and scalability
- Ucore Rare Metals stock has added 6.78 per cent year-over-year, but remains down by 42.73 per cent since 2019
Ucore Rare Metals (TSXV:UCU), a micro-cap rare earths stock, has completed 60 per cent of its contract with the U.S. Department of Defense at its commercialization and demonstration facility in Kingston, Ontario.
The company is applying its 52-stage RapidSX technology to separate mixed heavy and light rare earth elements (REE) from mixed rare earth oxide (MREO) with eyes on establishing a more sustainable North American supply chain.
The collaboration has garnered numerous preliminary agreements for MREC, MREO supply and offtake from Ucore’s full-scale REE separation plant in Alexandria, Louisiana, which is expected to reach production in 2025. Other recently achieved milestones include:
- Processing more than 3 tons of REE derived from a heavy rare earth element ionic clay-sourced MREO.
- Producing more than 57,000 litres of rare earth chloride raffinates and 57,000 litres of rare earth chloride strip liquors.
- Establishing an on-site analytical laboratory to support 120 hours of work per week.
- Instituting a continuous improvement program to ensure a “copy and paste” RapidSX technology transfer from Kingston, Ontario, to the company’s commercial REE separation plant in Louisiana.
- Completing more than 2,600 hours of demo plant runtime.
- Comparing the RapidSX demo plant against the smaller SX pilot plant for purity and recovery, with results indicating that RapidSX is equal or superior.
- Conducting 30 tours at the Kingston facility with U.S. and Canadian government entities, REE resource companies, REE magnet and metal makers, automotive OEMs, REO consumers, international trading companies, financiers, and other current and prospective partners.
After finalizing work with the U.S. Department of Defense in the first half of 2025, Ucore will shift to complete its light REE demonstration project funded by the Government of Canada.
Global demand for rare earth elements is expected to grow by three to seven times by 2040 driven by their essential roles in wind turbines, electric motors, MRI machines and smartphones, among many other applications.
Leadership insights
“The Department of Defense work that Ucore is performing in Kingston is essential to the commercial deployment of our RapidSX separation technology in Louisiana,” Mike Schrider, Ucore Rare Metals’ vice president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. “The operation of our demonstration-scale plant de-risks the commercial scale-up and allows Ucore the opportunity to attract like-minded Western partners as the company works to assist in establishing an alternative rare earth supply chain – particularly for heavy rare elements which are essential to the operation of rare earth permanent magnets at elevated temperatures in military, commercial and consumer vehicles and robots.”
About Ucore Rare Metals
Ucore is a specialist in rare- and critical-metal resource extraction, beneficiation and separation technologies with the potential for production, growth and scalability. The company is focused on disrupting China’s control of the North American REE supply chain by establishing heavy and light REE processing facilities in the United States and Canada.
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. stock (TSXV:UCU) is unchanged, trading at C$0.63 per share as of 10:28 am ET. The stock has added 6.78 per cent year-over-year, but remains down by 42.73 per cent since 2019.
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(Top photo of a demonstration of Ucore’s Louisiana strategic metals complex heavy REE processing flowsheet at its Kingston commercialization facility: Ucore Rare Metals)