Cracking Critical Mineral Supply Chain to Give the Rear Earth Sector a Transformative Boost

Energy Fuels Inc., an industry leader in the U.S. production of uranium and rare earth elements, has officially announced the acquisition of Base Resources Limited, an established heavy mineral sands and critical mineral company. 

According to certain reports, the acquisition was completed in exchange of Energy Fuels shares that totaled upto approximately US$178.4 million in value. 

Thanks to the deal, Energy Fuels has now assembled a world-class and low-cost REE and critical mineral supply chain, where a suite of HMS projects in the Southern Hemisphere is expected to be developed in the coming years and produce large quantities of REE-bearing mineral product (“Monazite”) from Base’s Toliara Project in Madagascar, the company’s 100% owned Bahia Project in Brazil, The same can be said about Energy Fuels’ planned interest in the Donald Project joint venture in Australia. In case you weren’t aware, Monazite contains the minerals “monazite” and “xenotime,” which have excellent grades and distributions of both “light” and “heavy” REEs. Not just that, Monazite also contains material quantities of natural uranium, which Energy Fuels plans to recover for sale to nuclear utilities. These nuclear utilities will process it further, and therefore, prepare it to be used as fuel for producing carbon-free electricity.

Anyway, furthermore, the company’s long-term plan is to develop and effectively import Monazite from the stated HMS projects, as well as potentially others, into the United States, where it will be processed into advanced REE products at the company’s White Mesa Mill, located near Blanding, Utah.

The whole effort delivers a rather interesting follow-up to one Energy Fuels’ demonstration from earlier this year, a demonstration during which it showed its ability to process Monazite and refine the material into separated neodymium-praseodymium (“NdPr”) at commercial scale. 

“With Energy Fuels’ acquisition of Base Resources and its Toliara Project, we have now acquired the raw materials that, when developed, will enable us to become one of the world’s leading suppliers of advanced rare earth products and titanium and zirconium minerals, while maintaining our current position as a leading producer of uranium in the United States,” said Mark Chalmers, President and CEO,Energy Fuels Inc. “We have been putting together the missing pieces of the REE supply chain over the past two years, as we create a large-scale and low-cost critical mineral company based in the United States.

To further contextualize the importance of such a development, we must acknowledge how REEs can be used in a wide variety of clean energy and advanced technologies, including EVs, PHEVs, direct-drive wind energy, magnets, and a number of other energy transition and defense-related technologies. Hence, the acquisition in que4stion should empower Energy Fuels, over the next the next 2 to 4 years, to optimize operations at the Toliara, Bahia, and Donald projects, projects that are understood to have a combined production capacity 43,000 metric tons of Monazite per year. Markedly enough, the Monazite produced from these projects will provide sufficient raw materials for Energy Fuels to produce roughly 4,000 – 6,000 tonnes of separated NdPr per year, along with roughly 200 – 300 tonnes of separated dysprosiumand terbium per year.

Beyond that, once developed, Energy Fuels’ HMS projects will also have the means to produce significant quantities of traditional HMS product lines, including titanium and zirconium minerals. These minerals, on their part, are expected to bolster the company’s cash flow by a significant margin.

“I am also honored and excited to welcome Base’s highly successful management and employees to the Energy Fuels’ team, which I am confident will elevate our competitive advantages from day one. A key benefit to Energy Fuels from this acquisition is that Base brings to the Company an experienced and highly regarded management and operations team with a proven track record of safe, efficient, and profitable operations at heavy mineral sands operations,” said Chalmers.