source:Global Mining Review
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has finalised negotiations with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Manufacturing Office for facility design and engineering in preparation for the construction and operation of a rare earth element (REE) separation and processing demonstration plant. GA-EMS is teaming with GA Europe’s Umwelt-und-Ingenieurtechnik GmbH (UIT), Rare Element Resources, Ltd (RER), and LNV, an Ardurra Group, Inc. company to begin the 40-month project to design, build and operate the REE separation and processing demonstration facility in Wyoming.
“We are looking forward to getting underway with the team to bring this demonstration project to life,” stated Scott Forney, President of GA-EMS. “REEs are critical to a wide range of technologies supporting both commercial and defence-related applications, including electric vehicles, solar panels, fibre optics, and high-strength permanent magnets. This project will provide valuable information regarding the development of domestic rare earth element resources and separation technologies that have the potential to improve REE supply and availability to meet growing demand.”
The DOE announced earlier in 2021 that it had selected GA-EMS for negotiation of a financial award for the project. The recent confirmation of the financial award allows the GA-EMS team to begin design and engineering work in preparation for facility construction and plant operation. Once completed, the demonstration plant will enable the separation and purification of rare earth oxides derived from ore removed from RER’s Bear Lodge deposit in Wyoming. The project’s primary goal is to demonstrate REE separation and processing at a scale sufficient to provide data and metrics predictive of cost and performance for a follow-on commercial-scale separation and processing facility.