RER coming to Upton

Braden Schiller
NLJ Reporter
 
Rare Element Resources, or RER, will open its test facility in Upton, where it will process elements from RER’s Bearlodge mine located 12 miles from Sundance.
According to RER’s website, rareelementresources.com, RER is an energy company  specializing in mining rare earth elements to provide them to technology companies. 
According to George Byers, vice president of RER, the search for a test facility site started about 10 years ago.
“But the benefits of the industrial park just overwhelmingly outweighed everything else. So, in the end, we tried to do our due diligence, but the industrial park (in Upton) was a good choice because No. 1, you guys all wanted it,” Byers said. “Everybody in the county, Newcastle up and elsewhere wanted it. Upton was very welcoming. It’s got the attributes you need. You got the rail, you’ve got the highway. you’ve got natural gas, you’ve got power.”
The test facility will be small, Byers said, small enough to “fit in a garage.” The demonstration plant will be “the size of a gymnasium,” he said.
Construction of the test facility is expected to take place in 2022 or 2023, and it will operate from 2023 to 2024.
The test facility will be responsible for refining several rare earth oxides. The most valuable oxide to come out of the plant will be neodymium praseodymium oxide. This oxide is used to produce high-strength magnets for various types of technology, including cell phones. To produce this, the test facility must separate lanthanum, cerium and thorium.
Sen. Chris Rothfuss, the minority leader in the Wyoming Senate, supports bringing the rare element industry to Wyoming.
“Once it gets started, it’s my expectation it will be a 40-year-plus industry. I don’t know that for certain, but I think that’s my recollection of anticipation and some of the early planning,” he said.
Rothfuss said that he hopes Wyoming can use the thorium to give it a stake in the next generation of nuclear reactors.
Rothfuss also praised the low environmental impact the Bearlodge mine will have.
“I think it’s important to stress the amount of work that’s gone into this project to minimize the environmental impact and footprint in that area, which is a very sensitive area.”
Rothfuss said that because the processing won’t be done at the mine mouth, the impact  should be very small and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality “will ensure a minimal surface impact, as well as an obligation for remediation and restoration.” 
RER is looking for investors to finish financing the project. The U.S. Department of Energy has given RER $22 million, and RER is responsible for raising the other $22 million from investors. RER is offering shareholders the ability to buy stock for 0.24 cents a share until Dec. 8.