Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSXV: UCU) (OTCQX: UURAF) (“Ucore” or the “Company”) is pleased to provide an update on the commissioning process for its RapidSX™ Demonstration Plant (“Demo Plant“) for the separation of heavy and light rare earth elements (“REEs“). The Demo Plant is located within Ucore’s 5,000 square foot RapidSX™ Commercialization and Demonstration Facility (“CDF“) in Kingston, Ontario, and is run by its laboratory partner, Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. (“KPM“).
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Figure 1 – Close-up Partial Views of Ucore’s RapidSX™ REE Separation Demo Plant in Kingston, Ontario
Commissioning of the Demo Plant is underway. Once commissioned, the Demo Plant is designed to demonstrate the techno-economic advantages, scale-up, and commercial durability of the RapidSX™ technology platform by processing tens of tonnes of North American-friendly sources of mixed rare earth chemical concentrates in a simulated production environment. The planned output products are high-purity NdPr, praseodymium, neodymium, terbium, and dysprosium REEs, to be incorporated into the early stages of original equipment manufacturers’ (“OEM”) qualification trials.
Simultaneously, Ucore, its engineering partner, Mech-Chem Associates, Inc. (“Mech-Chem“), and KPM are developing the full-scale engineering for the Company’s first Strategic Metals Complex (“SMC“). The SMC is a planned REE separation and rare earth oxide production plant slated to commence construction in the US State of Louisiana this year. It is scheduled to initially process 2,000 tonnes of total rare earth oxides (“TREO“) by the end of 2024, increasing to 5,000 tonnes in 2026.
“We are extremely pleased with the work at the CDF in concert with our partners, KPM, Mech-Chem, and a host of other supporting contractors and vendors. As we work toward near-term commercial deployment of the RapidSX™ rare earth element separation technology in North America,” stated Mike Schrider, P.E., Ucore’s VP and COO. “Implementing the Demo Plant commissioning process is a huge milestone for the team, and this is scheduled to be followed by a series of heavy and light rare earth element process demonstrations separating tens of tonnes of mixed rare earth concentrates over thousands of hours of facility run-time.”
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About Ucore Rare Metals Inc.
Ucore is focused on rare- and critical-metal resources, extraction, beneficiation, and separation technologies with the potential for production, growth, and scalability. Ucore has an effective 100% ownership stake in the Bokan-Dotson Ridge Rare Earth Element Project in Southeast Alaska, USA. Ucore’s vision and plan is to become a leading advanced technology company, providing best-in-class metal separation products and services to the mining and mineral extraction industry.
Through strategic partnerships, this plan includes disrupting the People’s Republic of China’s control of the North American REE supply chain through the near-term development of a heavy and light rare-earth processing facility in the US State of Louisiana, subsequent SMCs in Alaska and Canada and the longer-term development of Ucore’s heavy-rare-earth-element mineral-resource property at Bokan Mountain on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. Ucore is listed on the TSXV under the trading symbol “UCU” and in the United States on the OTC Markets’ OTCQX® Best Market under the ticker symbol “UURAF.”
For further information, please visit www.ucore.com/corporateupdate.
About RapidSX™ Technology
Innovation Metals Corp. (“IMC“) developed the RapidSX™ separation technology platform with early-stage assistance from the United States Department of Defense (“US DoD“), later resulting in the production of commercial-grade, separated rare-earth elements at the pilot scale. RapidSX™ combines the time-proven chemistry of conventional solvent extraction (“SX“) with a new column-based platform, which significantly reduces time to completion and plant footprint, as well as potentially lowering capital and operating costs. SX is the international rare-earth element (“REE“) industry’s standard commercial separation technology and is currently used by 100% of all REE producers worldwide for bulk commercial separation of both heavy and light REEs. Utilizing similar chemistry to conventional SX, RapidSX™ is not a “new” technology but represents a significant improvement on the well-established, well-understood, proven conventional SX separation technology preferred by REE producers.
