Energy Fuels, a leading U.S. producer of uranium, rare earth elements and other critical minerals, today announced that it has successfully developed the technology it believes is required to produce six (6) of the seven (7) rare earth oxides, at scale, that are now subject to newly enacted Chinese export controls, amid increasing trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
Energy Fuels' White Mesa Mill in Utah currently has the commercial capacity to process monazite ore concentrates into separated neodymium-praseodymium ("NdPr") oxide. Through its ongoing testwork at the White Mesa Mill, the Company believes it now has the technical knowhow to design, construct, and commission the expansion of its existing infrastructure to produce these six (6) rare earth oxides1 from monazite relatively quickly with appropriate U.S. government support and/or market conditions.
In a related development, on April 15, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order, entitled Ensuring National Security and Economic Resilience Through Section 232 Actions on Processed Critical Minerals and Derivative Products, directing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to initiate an investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion act of 1962 to evaluate the effects on national security of imports of processed critical minerals and their derivative products, including the import of the same rare earth, uranium and vanadium oxides that are produced by Energy Fuels in the U.S. The Company believes this action by the President has the strong potential to strengthen domestic supply chains for critical minerals and enable increased domestic production with well-designed trade remedies and price support.
Mark S. Chalmers, President and CEO of Energy Fuels stated: "Energy Fuels is uniquely positioned to quickly help fill many of the gaps President Trump identifies in his Critical Mineral Executive Order. We have a long history of producing uranium and vanadium oxides at our White Mesa Mill in Utah, and last year we successfully launched commercial rare earth processing capacity at the Mill, showing the world that our technology and infrastructure works at scale. We now have the data, knowledge and much of the infrastructure in place to produce 'light', 'mid' and 'heavy' rare earth oxides at scale at the White Mesa Mill. We encourage the U.S. government to showcase its commitment to American rare earth manufacturing with focused support to proven companies like Energy Fuels that have made significant investments in the critical mineral space and demonstrated their ability to commercially produce the critical minerals our country needs."
Since 2020, Energy Fuels has developed "light", "mid", and "heavy" REE production capabilities at its White Mesa Mill in Utah, in addition to maintaining its uranium and vanadium production capacity. Therefore, Energy Fuels believes it is one of the only U.S. companies capable of delivering on President Trump's executive order in the relative short-term on these critical elements.
Since Energy Fuels began performing lab- and pilot-scale REE separations in 2021 and commissioned commercial-scale NdPr separation in 2024 (up to 1,000 tonnes per year NdPr capacity), the Company has developed significant real-time data, experience, and knowhow applicable to separating REE oxides, including the "mid" and "heavy" oxides subject to the Chinese export controls. Based on this work, Energy Fuels believes it is now technically capable of designing, constructing, and operating the solvent extraction ("SX") circuits, and performing all of the hydrometallurgical steps, necessary to perform the REE separations to applicable specifications, at scale, at the White Mesa Mill in Utah, including the production of samarium ("Sm"), gadolinium ("Gd"), dysprosium ("Dy"), terbium ("Tb"), lutetium ("Lu") and yttrium ("Y") oxides, within as early as a twelve-month period, given appropriate government support.
Energy Fuels focuses on "monazite," which is a mineral the Company believes has a superior REE content and other benefits. First, monazite has excellent distributions of "light", "mid" and "heavy" REE oxides versus other REE minerals. Monazite also has advantages over other REE minerals, as it is currently produced as a low-cost byproduct of heavy mineral sands ("HMS") mines located in the U.S. and allied nations.
Energy Fuels has the current commercial capacity to process up to 10,000 tonnes of monazite concentrate and produce up to 1,000 tonnes of NdPr oxide per year, along with a "heavy", Sm+ concentrate, at the White Mesa Mill in Utah.
