Scale-up stalled — RER demonstration plant experiences new delay
Rare Element Resources’ demonstration plant in Upton has experienced another delay, the company announced on April 17.
According to a news release, the equipment shakedown process indicated that RER needed to make several design and equipment modifications to run the plant effectively.
It was reported that RER and mineral processing experts at General Atomics affiliate Umwelt-und Ingenieurtechnik GmbH Dresden, the manufacturing company based in Dresden, Germany, that helped move the technology through pilot testing, are reviewing the whole system and will recommend improvements to the plant.
“RER understands that the path to demonstration plant operations has been ongoing for some time and has not been on an exact time-line as we engaged in plant shakedown and equipment testing,” Ken Mushinski, RER’s president and CEO, told the News Letter Journal. “Progressing our innovative technology through scale-up from the prior successful pilot tests to the commercial-scale processing and separation at the demonstration plant is the key to a full commercial plant design. We are committed to the trajectory of this first-of-its kind technology, and this review underway is a necessary step.”
The review should be done before June, according to the release.
The work delays the start of operations until late 2025, but it’s important, according to Mushinski.
“As we progressed the plant toward operations during the past several months, our engineers and scientists identified multiple design and installation improvements that, if addressed now, will further increase the likelihood of successful, safe operations of our first-of-its-kind rare earth processing and separation Demonstration Plant,” he said in the release.
Mushinski told the NLJ that the team on site, supported by contractors, would likely be the ones to make the updates, but the company can’t confirm that until the scope is established.
RER will then obtain any other equipment and material it determines it needs for the plant. Additional shake-down and startup testing will follow.
General Atomics led a consortium of companies to design and build the plant, which will collect data for up to 10 months that will support the debut of the commercial plant that will use RER’s processing and separation technology, the release said.
Mushinski said that the release data the demonstration plant’s operations will collect is crucial for the future full-scale commercial operations.
“Understanding the critical need for a secure, domestic rare earth supply chain, the Company, with the unanimous backing of its Board of Directors, fully supports this opportunity for potential improvements through this review,” he said in the release.
The company will provide updates on the schedule and overall project cost when the recommendations and schedule are confirmed, the release said. The company is also moving along with permitting and licensing for the Bear Lodge Project, aiming to achieve “commercial production in a timely manner” for the planned mine and processing plant.
This is the second time the company has had to announce a delay in its time-line in the past month. In a March 25 release, RER had announced that the launch of operations would begin in mid-2025 after a several-week delay from the April start date the company had announced in a Jan. 28 release. Mushinski told the NLJ in March that the company was conducting the upgrades that its technical experts recommended and changes were taking longer than they expected.
“Our President and his Administration have made it clear that this is a national priority, and we continue to focus on being the cornerstone of this industry from right here in Wyoming,” Mushinksi told the NLJ.