The refinery uses smelting operations to process individual rare earth oxides into metal.
The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) has produced the first rare earth metals in North America in its refinery in Saskatoon. The facility produces metal by smelting individual rare earth oxides using “in-house developed technology,” according to the SRC. In a statement, the crown corporation highlighted that the facility is ahead of schedule and production is ready to be increased from ten tons of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) metal per month to 40 by the end of the year. NdPr is used to produce permanent magnets found in wind turbines, electric vehicle motors, and various electronic devices, for example.
According to the SRC, the plant will be fully operational in early 2025. Feedstock for the production is sourced from multiple international clients with which the SRC has concluded agreements in recent months. For example, it sources bastnaesite, a rare earth-containing ore, from Canadian mining company Vital Metals. The miner originally made agreements with a Chinese off-taker. This deal was later shelved in favor of keeping the raw materials in Canada, allegedly through government intervention (we reported). In addition, Australian company Arafura and the SRC have also signed an agreement to refine rare earths in Saskatoon.
Long Way to Final Magnet Production
Despite producing rare earth metals, final magnet production has been nonexistent in North America since the last facility suspended operations in 2006 and moved to China. The People’s Republic has since dominated the global magnet production, accounting for roughly 90 percent of production, according to Fastmarkets. Two projects are under construction in the United States to change this. MP Materials, the operator of the only rare earth mine in the U.S., Mountain Pass, is constructing a magnet factory in Fort Worth, Texas. In South Carolina, German rare earth magnet manufacturer Vacuumschmelze’s U.S. subsidy E-Vac Magnetics is building a factory. Both facilities are planned to commence operations in 2025.
Below is an abbreviated mine-to-magnet value chain, highlighting the challenge of building a complete one.
Simplified mine-to-magnet value chain.
Photo: Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC)
