By Robb M. Stewart

Uranium miner Energy Fuels is positioning itself as a producer of many of the critical minerals the U.S. relies on imports of, and which are now subject to hefty Chinese export controls.

The Denver-based company on Thursday said it has developed the technical ability it believes is needed to commercially produce six of the seven rare-earth oxides now hit with Chinese restrictions. What is more, Energy Fuels said it expects it can produce them at scale.

The company said it believes it now has the technical know-how to design, construct and commission the expansion of its existing infrastructure to produce samarium, gadolinium, dysprosium, terbium, lutetium, yttrium and other oxides relatively quickly, with appropriate U.S. government support or market conditions.

The company's White Mesa mill in Utah currently has the commercial capacity to process monazite-ore concentrates into separated neodymium-praseodymium oxide, and an expansion would allow it to produce the other rare-earth oxides from monazite, it said. It noted, however, that monazite doesn't have significant quantities of scandium, another metal subject to Chinese export controls that is often considered a rare earth.

The push to develop rare-earth capacity in the U.S. comes as tensions with China continue to escalate, and after the Trump administration leveled fresh tariffs on goods imported from China.

President Trump this week signed an executive order directing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to investigate the national-security effects of imports of processed critical minerals and their derivative products--including, said the company, import of the rare-earth, uranium and vanadium oxides produced by Energy Fuels. The company said that action has the potential to strengthen domestic supply chains for critical minerals and enable increased domestic production.

"Energy Fuels is uniquely positioned to quickly help fill many of the gaps President Trump identifies in his critical mineral executive order," Chief Executive Mark Chalmers said. "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."

The company said it currently has the commercial capacity to process up to 10,000 metric tons of monazite concentrate and to produce up to 1,000 tons of neodymium-praseodymium oxide a year, along with a "heavy" samarium concentrate in Utah. It said it expects to increase its capacity to be able to process 60,000 tons of monazite a year in the coming years, and that it is in the process of updating a 2024 study on the planned expansion of rare-earth elements processing at White Mesa.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 17, 2025 08:39 ET (12:39 GMT)

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