Significant Progress At The Round Top Mountain Project

SIERRA BLANCA, TX - USA Rare Earth LLC, reported significant progress at Round Top and its Rare Earth & Critical Minerals Processing Facility in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

Pini Althaus, CEO, said, “We are excited by the progress at Round Top and at our processing facility. The team has achieved important milestones as we build a resilient, long-term critical minerals supply chain that is totally independent of China. The electric vehicle industry faces an enormous challenge to secure resilient supply chains required to meet electrification targets.  We have positioned USA Rare Earth to be an important part of the solution, combining downstream processing capabilities, including permanent magnet manufacturing, with a rich endowment of heavy rare earths at Round Top, including dysprosium and terbium that are essential for sintered permanent rare earth magnets for high temperature applications such as large, higher performance electric motors. In addition to the processing of materials from Round Top, we have also focused our efforts on processing third-party materials, as the US supply chain will require materials from countries like Australia and Canada.”

Round Top Mountain, located in Hudspeth County, Texas, is a large, polymetallic deposit comprising heavy rare earths, lithium, and other critical minerals that are essential for the green technology revolution and other advanced technologies.  The project design includes an open-pit mine, crushing, and conventional heap leach.  The leach solution will be processed through combination of membrane concentration/impurity removal and continuous ion exchange/chromatographic extraction, separation, and purification of rare earths and other critical minerals.

USA Rare Earth recently acquired additional surface land for construction of a Demonstration Facility that will provide support to the final design and regulatory review, and process representative material for evaluation by prospective customers.

Following receipt of its Construction Stormwater permit, USA Rare Earth has completed the first phase of its stormwater management plan and initiated site preparation for a laydown area for the bulk sample which will be processed through the Demonstration Facility.

In addition, USA Rare Earth’s environmental team has completed important environmental baseline studies, including: Threatened and Endangered Species Report – showed no presence of threatened and endangered species or habitat likely to support threatened and endangered species; Jurisdictional Waterway Report – showed no presence of jurisdictional waterways; Cultural Resources Review – initial surveys have confirmed no presence of cultural resources within the project area.  USA Rare Earth is conducting a more detailed survey this summer; and Phase I Environmental Site Assessment – found no evidence of past or present contamination or hazardous spills on the project site and recommended no further study.

Continuing leach testing of surface samples and drill chips is confirming rare earth recovery of 85%-plus; an improvement on the assumptions in the 2019 Preliminary Economic Analysis (PEA). These results are extremely encouraging. An extended leach program has been awarded to a commercial laboratory to evaluate additional opportunities to optimize the leach process, including a focus on lithium.

USA Rare Earth’s Critical Minerals Processing Facility in Wheat Ridge, Colorado has successfully completed its Phase I program, separating the various coproducts and byproducts at Round Top and separating individual rare earth elements from both Round Top and third-party rare earth feedstock, which is a significant milestone not only for the Company, but also for project owners seeking alternative processing solutions to China. The first phase comprising a single pass through the ion exchange chromatographic columns has achieved total rare earth (TRE) purity (including yttrium) of better than 99% and target rare earth content of more than 99.5% of TRE, which is consistent with commercial standards. Phase II, scheduled to commence by early August, will involve larger volumes of feedstock from Round Top and third-party suppliers.  An initial objective will be to precipitate high purity separated rare earth oxides. To facilitate both the larger volumes of feedstock and third-party materials, the company has expanded the facility in Wheat Ridge.