Multiple enterprises from various countries are collaborating on rare earth projects to jointly advance project construction [SMM Rare Earth Overseas Weekly Review]

This week, the overseas rare earth industry showed active momentum, with several key projects achieving significant progress across different segments of the supply chain, spanning multiple dimensions from large-scale magnet plant construction, mineral project development, to cutting-edge R&D.

A milestone was reached in building the US domestic rare earth magnet supply chain, as Vulcan Elements officially announced the selection of Benson, North Carolina, for the construction of a $1 billion rare earth magnet plant. The facility is expected to achieve an annual output of 10kt of rare earth magnets and create approximately 1,000 jobs. This investment received strong support from the US government; the company, this month, entered into a $1.4 billion cooperative plan with refiner ReElement Technologies and the US government. This includes a $50 million equipment procurement intent from the US Department of Commerce under the CHIPS Act of 2022, a $620 million direct loan from the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital, and $550 million in private capital, all aimed at significantly enhancing the US's domestic production capacity for permanent magnets required in critical national defense and technology products. Vulcan Elements CEO John Maslin emphasized leveraging local talent advantages in hardware manufacturing and complex supply chain management to build a 21st-century critical supply chain.

On the mineral project front, resource development and exploration activities continued to advance in Australia and Angola. Critica successfully completed an oversubscribed placement, raising approximately A$8 million. Combined with existing funds and anticipated tax refunds and R&D subsidies, the company expects to have about $11.7 million in funding to advance the scoping study, accelerate drilling, and conduct smelting tests for the large-scale Jupiter rare earth project in Western Australia. The company's beneficiation-first strategy aims to initially deliver a mixed rare earth product with high magnet rare earth element content and evaluate the recovery of by-products such as gallium and germanium. The Jupiter project boasts a massive resource and is considered one of Australia's largest clay-hosted rare earth deposits, with potential for further resource growth. Meanwhile, UK-based Pensana announced the launch of an $11 million drilling and metallurgical testing program at its flagship Longonjo project in Angola. The program, involving 25,000 meters of vertical core drilling, targets a substantial increase in the JORC-compliant resource from the current 313 million mt to over 1 billion mt, aiming to further confirm the scale of this near-surface, high-grade, Pr-Nd-rich rare earth deposit.

New collaborative dynamics also emerged in the technology R&D sector, with Locksley Resources Ltd announcing a research partnership with Columbia University in the US to jointly develop next-generation technologies for the recovery and separation of rare earths and critical metals from the Mountain Pass area in California. The collaborative project, led by Professor Girishma Gadikota, Director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University, will focus on ore characterization, the development of electrochemical and CO₂-assisted leaching technologies (targeting a leaching efficiency of over 80%), and the evaluation of pilot solutions with low environmental impact. Roxley Resources will invest $150,000 over the next 12 months to support the development of related intellectual property.