Energy Fuels' White Mesa Mill Produces First US Terbium Oxide in Decades, Targets Commercial Heavy Rare Earth Output by 2027

Energy Fuels produces first US terbium oxide in decades at its White Mesa Mill, leveraging uranium processing infrastructure to target commercial heavy rare earth output by 2027.
- Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU | TSX: EFR) produced its first kilogram of terbium oxide at 99.9% purity at its White Mesa Mill in Utah in March 2026, using monazite sourced from Florida and Georgia - the first US company to publicly disclose primary heavy rare earth element oxide production at specification-grade purity in decades, with multiple permanent magnet manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers globally requesting samples for product validation.
- The White Mesa Mill is the only US facility holding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing required to process uranium-bearing monazite for commercial rare earth element oxide separation, a regulatory position built over 45 years of uranium processing that no other US rare earth element company currently replicates at commercial scale, with licensed uranium processing capacity of over 8 million pounds of uranium oxide per year.
- Energy Fuels produced 1,015,000 pounds of uranium oxide in 2025, exceeding its own guidance midpoint, and is targeting 1.5 to 2.5 million pounds in 2026 against a long-term contract uranium price of $90 per pound in the first quarter of 2026 - the highest level on record per company disclosure - which at the 1.75 million pound sales guidance midpoint implies contract-based uranium revenue of approximately $157.5 million, more than 3 times the $48.2 million generated in 2025.
- Every tonne of monazite processed at the White Mesa Mill generates uranium oxide as a byproduct at low incremental cost alongside rare earth element oxides, meaning the company's planned scale-up from 10,000 tonnes of monazite per year today to approximately 60,000 tonnes per year under Phase 2 would increase both uranium byproduct output and rare earth element oxide production simultaneously, with Phase 2 targeted for commissioning as early as 2029.
- Energy Fuels reported working capital of $927.4 million and total assets of $1.41 billion as of December 31, 2025, per the company's 2025 annual results, and holds $700 million in convertible notes at a 0.75% annual coupon raised in October 2025 to fund White Mesa Mill rare earth element expansions and the Donald Project in Australia, with the notes oversubscribed by more than 7 times at issuance.
Energy Fuels: The Uranium Mill at the Centre of the Western Rare Earth Supply Chain
Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU | TSX: EFR) announced on March 25, 2026 that its White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah has produced its first kilogram of terbium (Tb) oxide at 99.9% purity at pilot scale - the first US company to publicly disclose primary production of a heavy rare earth element oxide at specification-grade volumes in decades. The production used monazite sourced from mining operations in Florida and Georgia and meets the purity specifications required by global manufacturers of rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs). The milestone matters to investors because it was achieved not at a purpose-built rare earth element facility but at a uranium mill, using infrastructure and licensing built over 45 years of uranium processing - a combination that no other western rare earth element company currently replicates at commercial scale.
Why a Uranium Mill Is the Competitive Advantage
Monazite, the mineral feedstock Energy Fuels uses to produce rare earth element oxides, contains uranium. Processing it at commercial scale in the US requires Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing for radioactive materials handling - licensing that takes years and significant capital to obtain and that the White Mesa Mill already holds through its uranium business. The White Mesa Mill is the only facility in the US with this licensing at commercial scale, which means it is the only US facility legally able to process monazite for separated rare earth element oxide production. Any company seeking to replicate this capability would need to obtain equivalent regulatory authorisation before processing a single tonne of commercial-scale monazite feedstock.
The uranium content of monazite also generates a direct financial benefit: the White Mesa Mill recovers uranium oxide as a byproduct of rare earth element processing at low incremental cost, since the uranium extraction circuit is already operational. This byproduct uranium recovery reduces the effective per-tonne processing cost of monazite and produces an additional revenue stream that pure-play rare earth element processors without uranium handling capability cannot access. As the company scales monazite throughput from the current Phase 1A capacity of 10,000 tonnes per year toward the Phase 2 target of approximately 60,000 tonnes per year, uranium byproduct volumes will grow in parallel with rare earth element oxide output, with both revenue streams increasing from the same capital investment.
Mark Chalmers, Chief Executive Officer of Energy Fuels, confirmed the operational and strategic significance of the terbium result:
"This success proves we can process and produce high purity 'heavy' rare earth oxides economically and at scale in the US. North America will soon have a reliable and secure US commercial source of these vital critical materials ensuring availability for high-performance magnet and defense technologies."
Chalmers also pointed to the mill team's role in advancing the company's integrated critical materials strategy. "This is just another example of the outstanding team the company has at both the Mill, and elsewhere, as the company continues to advance our strategy of becoming a world significant critical material producer," he said.
The Terbium & Dysprosium Production Context
Terbium and dysprosium are heavy rare earth elements added to neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets to maintain magnetic coercivity at elevated operating temperatures, enabling reliable performance in electric vehicle drivetrains, wind turbine generators, military drones, and defense actuators. China controls the dominant share of global terbium and dysprosium production and placed both metals under export controls, creating supply risk for manufacturers in allied nations with no current western replacement source operating at commercial scale. Energy Fuels has now produced both elements at 99.9% purity from US-sourced monazite: approximately 29 kilograms of dysprosium oxide through 2025, and 1 kilogram of terbium oxide in March 2026. Multiple permanent magnet manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers globally have requested samples of both oxides for product validation, though the company did not name the recipients. In December 2025, Energy Fuels confirmed that its dysprosium oxide passed the initial purity and quality control processes of a major South Korean REPM manufacturer - the same facility that previously qualified the company's NdPr oxide for use in commercial-scale automotive motor magnets.
The White Mesa Mill: Uranium Capacity and Rare Earth Infrastructure
The White Mesa Mill has operated continuously for more than 45 years, holds licensed uranium processing capacity of over 8 million pounds of uranium oxide per year, and is the largest primary vanadium production facility in the US. Its existing Phase 1A rare earth element circuit can process up to 10,000 tonnes of monazite per year and produce up to 1,000 tonnes of NdPr oxide annually alongside uranium byproduct recovery. The mill's monazite feedstock grades at 50% to 60% total rare earth element oxides by weight - higher than the bastnäsite ore processed at China's dominant Bayan Obo deposit or at MP Materials Corporation's Mountain Pass operation in California - and carries commercially significant concentrations of both NdPr and heavy rare earth elements including dysprosium and terbium. The current offtake agreement with Chemours Company supplies approximately 500 tonnes of monazite per year from operations in Florida and Georgia, providing a near-term feedstock baseline while the company advances larger supply sources.
Uranium Production: The Revenue Engine Funding Rare Earth Expansion
Energy Fuels produced 1,015,000 finished pounds of uranium oxide in 2025, exceeding the top end of its revised guidance range of 700,000 to 1,000,000 pounds, per the company's 2025 annual results. The company is targeting production of 1.5 to 2.5 million pounds of uranium oxide in 2026, drawing primarily from the Pinyon Plain Mine in Arizona - which mined ore grading 1.62% equivalent U3O8 in 2025 and is described by the company as potentially the highest-grade uranium mine in US history, with production costs of approximately $23 to $30 per pound of uranium oxide - and the La Sal Complex in Utah, a multi-mine operation along an 11-mile trend with high-grade vanadium resources.
In 2025, uranium sales of 650,000 pounds at a weighted average realized price of $74.21 per pound generated $48.2 million in uranium revenue, per the company's 2025 annual results. That figure comprised 350,000 pounds of spot market sales at $76.90 per pound and 300,000 pounds of long-term contract sales at $71.06 per pound. The uranium spot market averaged approximately $73.54 per pound in 2025, per Cameco's supply and demand data, down from a peak of approximately $106 per pound in January 2024, per TradeTech's Daily Uranium Spot Price Indicator. The long-term contract uranium price reached $90 per pound in the first quarter of 2026, the highest level on record per company disclosure. At the midpoint of 2026 uranium sales guidance of 1.75 million pounds and the first quarter 2026 long-term contract price of $90 per pound, contract-based uranium revenue alone would reach approximately $157.5 million - more than 3 times the $48.2 million in uranium revenue generated in 2025 - providing a materially stronger operating cash flow base to fund rare earth element capital expenditure without requiring additional equity issuance.
The company holds 6 long-term supply contracts with US nuclear utilities with deliveries scheduled through 2032, providing contracted revenue visibility beyond the spot market. Its standby and development uranium pipeline holds nearly 70 million pounds of combined uranium resources across projects in Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Colorado, with combined potential production of approximately 6 million pounds of uranium oxide per year, providing long-term production optionality as the uranium market tightens. The uranium spot market recorded a structural supply deficit in 2025: world uranium production reached approximately 173 million pounds against primary demand of approximately 204 million pounds, per UxC data cited at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention in March 2026, a gap that analysts project will widen through the mid-2030s as existing mines plateau and new projects face permitting and capital cost delays.
Scaling Rare Earth Production: Three Phases, One Mill
The company's rare earth element expansion at the White Mesa Mill proceeds in three stages, each generating uranium byproduct recovery alongside increasing rare earth element oxide output. In the near term, Phase 1B targets commercial-level production of dysprosium, terbium, and potentially samarium, europium, and gadolinium oxides from existing mill circuits as early as 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and monazite feedstock availability. At Phase 1B scale, the company targets recovery of up to approximately 35 tonnes of dysprosium and 12 tonnes of terbium per year alongside 850 to 1,000 tonnes of NdPr oxide from 10,000 tonnes of monazite per year. At the February 19, 2026 benchmark prices cited in the company's March 2026 presentation - $1,125,000 per tonne for dysprosium oxide and $4,500,000 per tonne for terbium oxide, both sourced from BMI pricing for European cost, insurance, and freight delivery - Phase 1B dysprosium and terbium output alone would carry a gross revenue potential of approximately $93.75 million per year before processing costs, at those reference prices.
Phase 2, targeted for commissioning as early as 2029, would increase mill monazite capacity to approximately 60,000 tonnes per year, producing over 6,000 tonnes of NdPr oxide alongside approximately 288 tonnes of dysprosium and 80 tonnes of terbium oxide annually - sufficient NdPr to supply permanent magnets for approximately 7 million electric vehicles or hybrid electric vehicles per year. At Phase 2 planned volumes and the same February 19, 2026 BMI benchmark prices, dysprosium and terbium oxide output alone would carry a gross revenue potential of approximately $684 million per year before processing costs, with NdPr oxide production adding further revenue at the $135,000 per tonne North American cost, insurance, and freight benchmark price cited in the same presentation.
Building the Monazite Feed Pipeline
Each of the three projects in Energy Fuels' monazite supply pipeline contains uranium as a constituent of the monazite mineral, meaning feedstock deliveries from all three sources would generate uranium byproduct recovery at the White Mesa Mill alongside rare earth element oxide production.
The Donald Project in Victoria, Australia, developed under a joint venture with Astron Corporation in which Energy Fuels is earning up to a 49% interest and receives 100% of the monazite output, was targeting a final investment decision as early as the first quarter of 2026, with potential monazite deliveries to the White Mesa Mill by late 2027. Total project capital is estimated at approximately A$520 million (approximately US$340 million), with A$80 million in conditional financing support from Export Finance Australia, per the company's March 2026 presentation.
The Vara Mada Project in Madagascar, formerly referred to as Toliara, is targeting Phase 1 monazite output of 20,000 tonnes per year. Company filings cite a post-tax, pre-debt net present value of $1.8 billion at a 10% discount rate, a 24.9% internal rate of return, Stage 1 capital of $769 million, and expected EBITDA of approximately $500 million per year following ramp-up - a figure that does not include the additional value from uranium byproduct recovery at the White Mesa Mill. Development remains subject to government approvals in Madagascar, where fiscal terms have not yet been finalised with the Malagasy government. The Bahia Project in southern Bahia, Brazil, is in active sonic drilling with a resource estimate targeted for completion in 2026, and carries potential to supply 3,000 to 5,000 tonnes of monazite per year to the mill over multiple decades, depending on production rates, per the company's March 2026 presentation.
Adding Metals & Alloys Capacity: The ASM Acquisition
Energy Fuels announced on January 20, 2026 that it is acquiring Australian Strategic Materials Limited (ASM), with the transaction expected to close by mid-2026. The acquisition adds a producing rare earth metals and alloys plant in Ochang, South Korea, with current installed capacity of approximately 1,300 tonnes per year of NdFeB alloy and plans to expand to approximately 3,600 tonnes per year in Phase 2 and approximately 5,600 tonnes per year in Phase 3, per ASM management and public filings. It also adds a planned US-based metals plant with initial targeted production capacity of approximately 2,000 tonnes per year of alloy, expandable to approximately 4,000 tonnes per year, and the construction-ready Dubbo Project in New South Wales, Australia, which holds all major permits and a 42-year mine life based on a JORC-compliant scoping study released by ASM on July 11, 2025. Combined with the White Mesa Mill's uranium and rare earth element oxide production, the acquisition creates a supply chain spanning uranium mining, monazite processing, rare earth element oxide separation, and metals and alloys manufacturing, with the White Mesa Mill's uranium processing capability serving as the operational and financial anchor of the integrated chain.
Financial Position
Energy Fuels reported working capital of $927.4 million as of December 31, 2025, comprising $797.1 million in marketable securities, $73.5 million in inventory, $64.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, and $18.0 million in trade and other receivables, against total assets of $1.41 billion, per the company's 2025 annual results. The company reported a net loss of $86.1 million, or $0.38 per share, for full-year 2025, compared with a net loss of $47.8 million, or $0.28 per share, in 2024, driven by expanded global operations, higher general and administrative expenses following the Base Resources acquisition, increased exploration and development spending, and uranium spot prices that averaged approximately $73.54 per pound in 2025, per Cameco's supply and demand data. In October 2025, the company raised $700 million through a convertible senior notes offering at a 0.75% annual coupon, a 32.5% conversion premium at $20.34 per share, and an all-in effective pre-tax yield of 2.1%, with a capped call feature that effectively raises the conversion price to $30.70 per share. The offering was oversubscribed by more than 7 times and is earmarked for White Mesa Mill Phase 1 and Phase 2 rare earth element expansions and development of the Donald Project in Australia.
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