TSX-V-listed Medallion Resources has asked international engineering group Stantec to evaluate sites in the US to establish its rare earth element (REE) extraction plant.
The high automated plant location will be a modern chemical processing setting with top-tier environmental standards and operated by highly trained technicians.
Stantec’s evaluation will consider upstream and downstream logistics options related to the transport of monazite feedstock, reagents, produced concentrates and waste material.
In its pursuit of producing magnet metals, Medallion has done many years of testwork and recent completed the design of a hydrometallurgical process to extract a REE concentrate from by-product monazite sand in a clean, safe and automated way.
This process produces concentrate that is rich in neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) – which are critical inputs to the rare-earth permanent magnets that power the motors in electric vehicles (EVs), defence applications and various clean technologies.
Currently, the automotive sector represents about 50% of total NdPr use globally and NdPr represents the majority of the REE market by value globally. The total REE market is valued at about $4-billion.
“Based on recent announcements from the US Department of Defense on funding programs for rare-earth separation and magnet stockpiling as well as automakers’ desires for non-Chinese sources of NdPr we’re taking this important step toward production.
“The military requirement for NdPr is highly strategic and looks to only add to the looming NdPr shortages forecast by industry analysts given EV market growth,” says Medallion CEO and president Don Lay.
He explains that the US-based REE plant will have a small footprint and low capital cost, compared with traditional REE mining and processing. The company’s process also producers rare earth products quicker for domestic markets.