Energy Fuels (UUUU) - NOW Selling Uranium, Vanadium & Rare Earths

Energy Fuels Inc. is the leading producer of uranium in the United States and has an annual uranium production capacity of more than 11.5 million pounds of U3O8. The annual uranium production capacity of the company is more than any of its peers in the USA. The company is also a major U.S. producer of vanadium and commercial rare earth metals.

Matthew Gordon spoke with Mark Chalmers, the President and CEO of Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE:UUUU) to discuss the company’s recently announced record commercial shipment of minerals.

Company Overview

The company recently announced that its White Mesa Mill, situated near Blanding in Utah, USA made three commercial shipments of three critical mineral products. The trifecta of mineral product shipments consists of uranium, vanadium and rare earth elements (REE). The uranium oxide shipment (U3O8) was sent to the Metropolis Works uranium conversion facility in Illinois for storage. The stockpile of U3O8 may either be converted to uranium hexafluoride (UF6), to be sold and used as nuclear fuel or sold as U3O8 for further processing by the buyer.

The produced vanadium pentoxide of the company has been sent to the Bear Metallurgical Company in Pennsylvania for storage, where it may either be sold as vanadium pentoxide or further processed to ferrovanadium (FeV). The mixture of the produced REE carbonate has been sent to Neo Performance Materials' Silmet facility, located in Estonia.

Energy Fuels Inc. also announced that it has made progress with regard to its lab-scale REE pilot program, which it initiated in 2021. The company has been able to produce high-purity mixed neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide which has been sent to Neo Performance Materials to undergo evaluation intended to lead to a commercial agreement in the future.

The company has further enlisted the services of Carester SAS, a French engineering consulting firm to perform detailed scoping and cost studies as well as assist with technical support for the development of a commercial REE processing facility at the White Mesa Mill. Carester SAS will complete the design for the rare earth element (REE) separation system at the White Mesa Mill, with Energy Fuels Inc. having initiated the permitting process for the facility. The company expects that it will be producing REE oxides between 2025 and 2026.

White Mesa Mill

The White Mesa Mill of the company is a 100% owned milling facility located near the town of Blanding in the state of Utah in the USA. The White Mesa Mill is the only licensed uranium mill in the USA and has a licensed capacity of more than 8 million pounds of uranium a year. The mill was responsible for 24% of the uranium produced in the USA between 2012 and 2018. The mill is able to process alternative feed materials, unlike various of its peers, and is as such not reliant on the availability of traditional uranium ore.

The White Mesa Mill was responsible for the production of three different commercial shipments of three critical mineral products in the first week of April 2022. The trifecta of commercial shipments consisted of REE carbonate, uranium oxide (U3O8) and vanadium pentoxide (V2O5).  

Mark Chalmers, the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company boasts of the company’s recent developments as follows:

“… what facility out there in the world can claim that, that they have sent commercial quantities of Uranium, Vanadium and this rare earth product? I don't know anybody else in the world that can do that or is doing that, we're doing it at commercial quantities. We are selling some of our Vanadium and we're selling currently all of our carbonate to Neo at the Silmet facility in Estonia.

Rare Earth Elements (REE)

Energy Fuels Inc. has been able to initiate rare earth elements (REE) separation at its White Mesa Mill. The company is able to separate rare earth elements on a commercial scale into a rare earth element carbonate, by utilising the existing milling infrastructure. The existing solvent extraction circuit at the mill is able to remove the majority of Lanthanum (La) and produce an advanced Cerium (Ce) REE Carbonate. This product has a grade of approximately 32% - 34% Neodymium-Praseodymium (NdPr) and 1.8% Terbium (Tb) and Dysprosium (Dy) on a total rare earth oxide (TREO) percentage basis.

Chalmers is content with the company’s progress regarding the processing of rare earth elements and states:

“…things are moving quickly but I think on that release on the trifecta, one of the real key parts of that release was just on this rare earth element front, where we're doing this first step of commercial separation. It’s where we're separating out the Lanthanum and making a very, very pure, rare earth element carbonate that is well north of 30%, NdPr. A very, very nice product so again, we continue to do value add at various steps as a company with these various speciality elements for our critical mineral hub at the White Mesa Mill.”

The produced rare earth elements were shipped to the Silmet facility of Neo Performance Materials Inc. in Estonia for further separation into advanced REE products. The separation into REE carbonate at the White Mesa Mill is according to the company the first commercial-scale rare earth element separation to occur in the USA since the early 2000s.

Uranium Oxide

Energy Fuels Inc. being the largest producer of uranium in the USA, is able to boast that it has a uranium production capacity of 11.5 million pounds per annum. The processing capacity of the company is more than any other facility of its peers in the USA. The company ended 2021 with over 700,000 pounds of U3O8 in its inventory. The company expects to be able to produce 100,000 to 120,000 pounds of U3O8 in 2022, with its produced U3O8 being stored primarily at two facilities in the USA, with one of the facilities being the Metropolis Works uranium conversion facility in Metropolis, Illinois. The stored U3O8 will either be enriched at a later stage to uranium hexafluoride (HF6) or sold as-is.

Chalmers explains that the U3O8 has only been sent to the facility to be stored and that it has not yet been processed or sold to any buyers,

“We have not sold any of our Uranium. We just shipped our Uranium to a conversion facility so that it can be sold at some later date. It's basically an inventory there and so it just really readiness is what it is.”

The produced uranium hexafluoride will be marketed and sold through ConverDyn. ConverDyn is a general partnership between General Atomics and Honeywell International Inc. that provides uranium hexafluoride (UF6) conversion and related services to utility companies operating nuclear power plants in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Energy Fuels Inc. states that the produced uranium oxide (U3O8) may be further processed to uranium hexafluoride (UF6) as and when required. Chalmers explains that by not converting all of its stockpiles, the company has the flexibility regarding choosing what it is able to sell.

“…Our plan is just to have it in inventory at ConverDyn and some people want to buy U3O8, some people want to buy UF6 and it just gives us flexibility on what product we ultimately sell. So, it doesn't mean just because it's there that we're going to convert it into UF6 but somebody who buys it may very well do so. And maybe we do, so there are different ways of getting there…”

Vanadium pentoxide

The third of the company’s trifecta of commercial shipments in April was its produced vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), which was shipped to the Bear Metallurgical Company in Butler, Pennsylvania. The price of Vanadium oxide in Europe has seen a 40% increase since February 2021 and has as such created the ideal climate for the company to start selling some of its vanadium pentoxide inventory. Vanadium pentoxide is primarily processed into Ferrovanadium (FeV) which is then sold to the steel and speciality alloy industries.

Energy Fuels Inc. is taking the same approach towards its processed vanadium pentoxide as it is towards its uranium oxide. The vanadium pentoxide may either be sold as vanadium pentoxide or further processed into Ferrovanadium (FeV) from which it may also be sold. The company believes that as with its uranium shipment, this approach gives it flexibility in the market, Chalmers states:

“…the same analogy with the Vanadium, V2O5 that we're shipping to Pennsylvania, we're shipping the V2O5 and it gets converted into Ferrovanadium. We're going ahead and paying that fee to do that so that if people want V2O5 or they want Ferrovanadium, we can sell either product.”

Carester SAS

Energy Fuels Inc. is committed to restoring the commercial rare earth element (REE) capabilities of the USA. The company announced that it has engaged the services of the French engineering firm Carester SAS in the development of detailed engineering studies for the development of commercial rare earth element separation infrastructure at the White Misa Mill. The detailed engineering studies will include detailed scoping, cost estimation, permitting support, technical support, and the design of the commercial infrastructure.

The planned commercial rare earth separation infrastructure is envisioned to produce approximately 10,000 tons of TREO by 2025 or 2026. The lab-scale pilot program of the company, which is aimed at providing information necessary to design the commercial production plant, has been underway since 2021 and is still ongoing. The product obtained from the pilot plant has been submitted for further evaluation by Neo Performance Metals, with the company planning to sell the product to various buyers in the future. Energy Fuels Inc. also plans to produce other rare earth elements such as Dysprosium (Dy) and Terbium (Tb) by 2028.

Future initiatives

Energy Fuels Inc. will continue to pursue its initiatives of expanding its rare earth elements processing capabilities through its various studies and with the assistance of Carester SAS. The company will also identify other sources of monazite to support its expansion initiatives. Chalmers explains the company’s planned initiatives towards its REE processing initiatives as follows:

“I know Neo likes the product, they want more product, we're still really getting our leads on other sources of monazite from these various parties. And as I've said many or 2028 times, there's about a half a dozen and as soon as we can secure that monazite at the mill, we plan to make it in the carbonate and ship it on to Neo in Estonia.”

Energy Fuels Inc. will also restart various mining operations in its portfolio. The company has already allocated capital towards the restarting of its mining operations, which will enable the production of uranium through conventional and in-situ recovery methods in 2022 still.

To find out more, go to the Energy Fuels website