Energy Fuels, POSCO team up to explore REE magnet supply chain

Energy Fuels (NYSE American: UUUU) (TSX: EFR) has partnered with South Korea’s POSCO with a view of establishing a non-China rare earth elements (REE) supply chain for electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid EV drivetrains as early as this year.

Under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on Monday, Energy Fuels will supply a large sample of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide to POSCO, which will then process it into metal, alloy and finished high-performance permanent REE magnets for use in its traction motor cores.

POSCO is a global supplier of traction motor cores, which are key components in EV and hybrid EV drivetrains, and a specialist in EV powertrain components. Its drivetrains have been qualified by US, South Korean, European and Japanese automakers.

Initial qualification samples of the NdPr oxide have already met all of POSCO’s applicable specifications, Energy Fuels said in a statement.

The NdPr oxides are produced at the company’s White Mesa mill in Utah, which achieved commercial production last summer. Currently in its first phase, the facility has the capacity to produce 850 to 1,000 tonnes of NdPr per year.

Further to supplying its NdPr oxides, Energy Fuels will receive final magnet and sintered block samples from POSCO to demonstrate successful production of high-performance magnets from its rare earth products.

The agreement, according to Energy Fuels’ CEO Mark Chalmers, brings the US and its allies one step closer to seeing vehicles powered by American-made rare earth oxides with no ties to China.

The collaboration would unlock “a scalable, high-quality allied REE magnet processing and manufacturing route that does not currently exist in the US,” he said in a press release on Monday.

“Energy Fuels is moving aggressively to address a critical gap in the domestic market that is both competitive and shielded from geopolitical factors,” Chalmers added.

Upon successful validation of the initial sample supply of NdPr oxide, the parties will discuss the potential delivery of additional mass production supply volumes of NdPr oxide later this year for permanent REE magnet production, which, according to Energy Fuels, will be enough to power 30,000+ EVs.

The parties have also indicated the possibility for Energy Fuels to supply REE oxides to POSCO on a long-term basis, while leaving significant volumes available for other customers, including commercial-scale REE metallization, alloying and magnet production initiatives, currently being constructed in the US.

“If a definitive agreement with POSCO is completed this year, we could see Energy Fuels’ American-made rare earths powering vehicles in the US in 2025,” Chalmers said.

Shares of Energy Fuels traded 4.1% higher at C$6.15 a piece at midday Monday, giving the Colorado-based company a market capitalization of C$1.2 billion ($840 million).