The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Metal Tech News - August 21, 2025
The White Mesa Mill now produces five critical minerals – uranium, vanadium, neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium.
A sample of high-purity dysprosium oxide produced at White Mesa.
In another milestone along the road to establishing a complete rare earths supply chain in the United States, Energy Fuels Inc. has produced 99.9% pure dysprosium (Dy) oxide at its White Mesa Mill in Utah.
"Energy Fuels' high-purity Dy oxide production is a major leap toward securing a U.S. supply of 'heavy' rare earth oxides for a variety of commercial and defense uses," said Energy Fuels CEO Mark Chalmers.
While American companies such as MP Materials and Energy Fuels are ramping up production of light rare earths, such as neodymium and praseodymium used in rare earth magnets, heavy rare earths remain a weak link in domestic rare earth supply chains.
The suite of 17 rare earth elements (REE) is generally subdivided into light and heavy categories based on their atomic weight. The heavy rare earths – dysprosium, terbium, samarium, gadolinium, lutetium, holmium, and yttrium – are scarcer, costlier, and more complex to separate than their light REE counterparts.
Heavy REEs such as dysprosium and terbium provide heat resistance and durability to rare earth magnets for heavy-use applications, such as electric vehicle motors.
The urgency to establish a domestic supply of these essential elements was elevated when China halted exports of certain heavy REEs earlier this year, raising concerns about how the supply disruptions would impact America's automotive, high-tech, and defense industries.
The feedstock for the rare earths production line at White Mesa is a byproduct of The Chemours Company's titanium and zirconium mining and processing business in Georgia and Florida.
This byproduct, known as monazite, is a phosphate mineral that contains roughly 50% rare earths and 0.2% uranium.
Under a partnership forged in 2021, Energy Fuels is processing the monazite provided by Chemours at White Mesa.
The rare earth separation plant at White Mesa, which is already producing neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, has been stockpiling concentrates enriched with dysprosium, terbium, samarium, gadolinium, lutetium, and yttrium.
Now, Energy Fuels is the first company in the U.S. to produce high-purity dysprosium oxide and publicly disclose actual production volumes and purities.
A sample of high-purity dysprosium oxide produced at White Mesa.
While one kilogram of oxide will not resolve America's heavy rare earths challenges, it does demonstrate that Energy Fuels' pilot plant can produce commercial-quality dysprosium from domestic feedstock.
"This is real, high-quality material in-hand, ready for independent testing, demonstrating that our Utah facilities can deliver world-class critical minerals domestically," said Chalmers.
The company says that multiple magnet manufacturers and OEMs have expressed strong interest in obtaining samples from pilot production to accelerate their validation processes.
To meet these requests, Energy Fuels plans to continue pilot-scale production of dysprosium oxide until 15 kilograms have been produced. Once this target has been reached, the company plans to switch its focus to producing high-purity terbium oxide and plans to have samples ready for testing by the third quarter.
Given the early success with dysprosium, Energy Fuels is moving ahead with plans to develop a commercial-scale dysprosium-terbium oxide plant at White Mesa.
"Data and knowledge from our pilot plants will guide the design and construction of commercial Dy, Tb, and potentially other 'heavy' rare earth separation infrastructure that we plan to install in Utah next year," Chalmers added.
With more than 18 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration, and technology metals.
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