source:Building Indiana
American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC), a next generation and socially responsible supplier of raw materials to the new infrastructure and electrification marketplace, announced another milestone for its American Rare Earth division in receiving the final permit approval for its initial rare earth and critical element isolation and purification facility currently being constructed in Noblesville, IN.
The facility will be the company’s first as it continues to execute on its innovative objectives to help establish a competitive, domestic supply chain using the most economically viable and environmentally safe methods ever developed to isolate and purify critical and rare earth elements (REE). As demonstrated in its success in recycling rare earth magnet metals and battery metals using its patented chromatography technology and processes, American Rare Earth will be able to commercially process these high-value raw materials to a 99%+ purity level to be used again in the manufacturing of new products for the electrification marketplace.
Mark Jensen, CEO of American Resources Corporation commented, “As we continue to execute on our objective of leading the United States to commercially process critical and rare earth elements and bringing real and impactful solutions to our domestic supply chain, we are glad to be able to communicate this incremental milestone. Having the ability to work with our local representatives to efficiently procure our permits is key and helps us meet our overall goals. Additionally, our ability to efficiently navigate the permitting process highlights our chromatography process and facility’s environmentally safe nature, and enables us to scale our operations quickly, with more flexibility and at a lower cost than any other existing method.”
This first facility is designed to initially have two production trains leveraging one process and control center. The first production train will focus on recycling rare earth permanent magnets to recover, isolate and purify the inherent rare earth elements neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr) and dysprosium (Dy) and establish a viable circular life cycle and economy for these materials that historically too often have ended up in landfills. The second production train will focus on battery metals and refining black mass to recover, isolate and purify its inherent cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), lithium (Li) and manganese (Mn) from waste products such as end-of-life lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles that the company receives from its own efforts and the efforts of its third-party partnerships. This initial facility is being built and financed from capital that is currently on the balance sheet without the need to raise additional external capital.
The company is also in the planning and development stage of its larger scale facility, also in Noblesville, Indiana just three miles from this first plant, on a 7+ acre site procured in August 2021. Given current supply chain constraints resulting in longer lead times for construction materials, the company pivoted to lease an existing structure to build its first two commercial chromatography production trains. The larger scale facility’s design plan contains up to twelve commercial production trains for a variety of critical and REE feedstocks.
American Resources continues to focus on running efficient streamlined operations in being a new-aged supplier of raw materials to the infrastructure and electrification marketplace in the most sustainable of ways, while also helping the world achieve its goals of carbon neutrality. By operating with low or no legacy costs and having one of the largest and most innovative growth pipelines in the industry, American Resources Corporation works to maximize value for its investors by positioning its large asset base to best fit a new-aged economy, while being able to scale its operations to meet the growth of the markets it serves.