Following the closure of Energy Fuels’ (TSX:EFR,NYSEAMERICAN:UUUU)acquisition of Base Resources, Curtis Moore discussed the buildout of the company’s rare earths and heavy mineral sands businesses.
‘We are creating a truly diversified critical minerals company. This diversification is based upon on our core uranium processing and our core uranium production capabilities, which remain the heart of our business,’ he said.
‘We have been and will be the number one uranium producer in the US … however, on top of this uranium capability that we have, we’ve been able to bolt on a world-significant rare earth business and also a world-significant heavy mineral sand business,’ added Moore, who is SVP of marketing and corporate development at Energy Fuels.
Base Resources holds the Madagascar-based Toliara project, which once up and running will be a source of heavy mineral sands, as well as monazite, which can be used to produce the magnet rare earths used in electric vehicles.
Moore explained that Energy Fuels will be able to process the monazite at its White Mesa mill in Utah.
Using feed from Toliara, as well as the Donald project in Australia and Bahia project in Brazil, the company eventually expects to be able to produce 5,000 to 6,000 metric tons of neodymium-praseodymium oxide annually, as well as about 300 to 400 metric tons of dysprosium and terbium oxides. Moore estimated that it will take two to three years to get to that level of output as the company expands White Mesa and gets Toliara, Donald and Bahia going.
‘When you’re talking about those levels of rare earths, that’s about the same size as a Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC,OTC Pink:LYSCF) or an MP Materials (NYSE:MP), and we expect to be highly competitive on costs,’ he said.
Watch the interview above for more of Moore’s thoughts on rare earths, heavy mineral sands and uranium.
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.