Nova Scotia-based Ucore Rare Metals has determined optimised configurations for its planned rare earth production lines at the Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex (SMC).  

This follows the company undertaking a capital expenditure and capacity engineering report, which was prepared by Ucore’s engineering consortium, led by Orbital Engineering.

The report reflects the efforts to move from the company’s Kingston, Ontario, commercial and demonstration facility to production Line 1 at the SMC in Louisiana.

As a result of efficiencies identified through engineering, demonstration and scale-up work testing, Ucore is designing the Louisiana SMC to consist of the initial 600 t/y total-rare-earth-oxide (TREO) Machine A plus three RapidSX production lines, each capable of processing up to 3 000 t/y of TREO.

This optimised configuration reduces the planned number of production lines from four to three, while targeting an overall Louisiana SMC throughput capacity of about 9 600 t/y of TREO.

“This configuration better balances capital intensity, reliability, maintainability, commercial flexibility, and operating cost per unit of production,” Ucore confirms.

Each machine will use optimised RapidSX columns and supporting equipment throughput, which increases the upfront capital required but improves long-term operating economics by reducing the number of parallel processing lines, individual columns, pumps, valves, instruments and maintenance points.

“This is an important evolution in the Louisiana SMC plan. We are moving from a lowest initial build-cost concept toward a more robust commercial operating configuration designed for higher throughput per production line, fewer production lines, fewer maintenance points, and better long-term operating performance,” says Ucore CEO and chairperson Pat Ryan.

Ucore COO and VP Mike Schrider explains the engineering objective was to translate RapidSX demonstration work into a commercial configuration that is practical to build, practical to operate and scalable for North American rare earth supply chain requirements.

“The optimised design is intended to reduce process complexity while retaining Ucore’s ability to process qualified feedstocks from multiple independent rare-earth sources,” he notes.

Pending construction completion, commissioning, qualification and receipt of all required funding and permits, Ucore’s Louisiana SMC will be capable of accepting mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) and mixed rare earth oxide (MREO) from Western-friendly feedstock sources and process up to 9 600 t/y of TREO.

The SMC is being designed to take advantage of the inherent flexibility and modularity of the RapidSX technical platform to produce all kinds of rare earth oxide products.

CAPITAL UPDATES

The capital expenditure and capacity engineering report estimates the capital cost for the enhanced Machine A and first production line for 3 000 t/y of TREO at $135-million.

The capital expenditure and capacity engineering report determined that the first RapidSX machine that will be deployed at Louisiana SMC, Machine A, will be partially funded through Ucore’s previously announced $18.4-million funding agreement with the US Department of War.

Originally contemplated as a single machine with 64 RapidSX stages and designed to replicate the 'any split' methodology demonstrated at the demonstration plant through intermediate product storage and machine reuse, the now enhanced Machine A will consist of 118 RapidSX stages.

Ucore says this will allow for the direct production of neodymium-praseodymium from conventional MREC or MREO feedstocks, as well as praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, gadolinium, terbium, and/or dysprosium from select partial MREC product groups without the use of interim product holding tanks for successive separations.

This important strategic adjustment is in direct response to feedback from North American defence contractors regarding their urgent need to secure Western sources of these critical oxides.

Ucore reiterates that the updated capital plan reflects the company’s move from a lower initial build-cost configuration to a more robust configuration designed to lower long-term unit operating costs, improve process reliability and increase maintainability as Louisiana SMC scales to commercial operations.

The updated estimates also reflect inflation and market-cost escalation since the prior pre-engineering estimates, as well as the expansion of commercial-scale oxide production and packaging equipment with more substantive supporting infrastructure and higher-capacity systems.