Energy Fuels, POSCO team up to explore REE magnet supply chain

Power Gas (NYSE American: UUUU) (TSX: EFR) has actually partnered with South Korea’s POSCO with a sight of developing a non-China unusual planet components (REE) supply chain for electrical lorries (EV) and crossbreed EV drivetrains as very early as this year.

Under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) joined Monday, Power Fuels will provide a huge example of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide to POSCO, which will certainly after that refine it right into steel, alloy and completed high-performance irreversible REE magnets for usage in its grip electric motor cores.

POSCO is a worldwide provider of grip electric motor cores, which are crucial parts in EV and crossbreed EV drivetrains, and an expert in EV powertrain parts. Its drivetrains have actually been certified by United States, South Korean, European and Japanese car manufacturers.

First credentials examples of the NdPr oxide have actually currently fulfilled every one of POSCO’s suitable specs, Power Fuels claimed in a declaration.

The NdPr oxides are created at the business’s White Mesa mill in Utah, which achieved commercial production last summertime. Presently in its initial stage, the center has the ability to create 850 to 1,000 tonnes of NdPr each year.

More to providing its NdPr oxides, Power Fuels will certainly get last magnet and sintered block examples from POSCO to show effective manufacturing of high-performance magnets from its unusual planet items.

The contract, according to Power Fuels’ Chief Executive Officer Mark Chalmers, brings the United States and its allies one action better to seeing lorries powered by American-made unusual planet oxides without any connections to China.

The cooperation would certainly open “a scalable, top notch allied REE magnet handling and production path that does not presently exist in the United States,” he claimed in a news release on Monday.

” Power Fuels is relocating boldy to resolve a crucial space in the residential market that is both affordable and secured from geopolitical variables,” Chalmers included.

Upon effective recognition of the first example supply of NdPr oxide, the events will certainly review the prospective distribution of added automation supply quantities of NdPr oxide later on this year for irreversible REE magnet manufacturing, which, according to Power Fuels, will certainly suffice to power 30,000+ EVs.

The events have actually additionally shown the opportunity for Power Gas to provide REE oxides to POSCO on a lasting basis, while leaving considerable quantities readily available for various other consumers, consisting of commercial-scale REE metallization, alloying and magnet manufacturing campaigns, presently being created in the United States.

” If a clear-cut contract with POSCO is finished this year, we might see Power Gas’ American-made unusual planets powering lorries in the United States in 2025,” Chalmers claimed.

Shares of Power Gas traded 4.1% greater at C$ 6.15 an item at noontime Monday, offering the Colorado-based business a market capitalization of C$ 1.2 billion ($ 840 million).