Aclara Resources Inc. (Vancouver, B.C., Canada) announced plans to construct the first heavy rare earths (HREE) separation facility in the United States, located in Louisiana with an expected secured sustainable feed from two ionic clay deposits in Brazil and Chile.
The Project is scheduled for completion in 2027, contingent upon the timely completion of funding and offtake agreements. Upon the Company achieving a secured feed from its sources in Brazil and Chile, the Project will become the first HREE separation plant in the U.S. with an integrated HREE feed from two ionic clay deposits in friendly jurisdictions, which deposits are expected to be in operation by in mid-2028.
Designed as a comprehensive solution for rare earths, the Project is expected to produce high-purity Dysprosium (Dy), Terbium (Tb), and other restricted HREEs and light rare earths (LREEs), essential for advanced technologies such as electric vehicles, wind turbines, drones, and robotics. Provided the achievement of full production, Aclara anticipates being able to supply more than 75% of the U.S. requirements of DyTb for electric vehicles by 2028.
Annual production upon the successful development of the Company’s ionic clay deposits in Brazil and Chile is anticipated to be 200 tons/yr (Dy), 30 tons/yr (Tb) and 1,400 tons/yr (NdPr) of separated high-purity oxides, representing approximately 14% of China’s official DyTb production. The State of Louisiana is supporting the Project with an estimated US$46.4 million in tax incentives and grants.
This initiative marks a major milestone in Aclara’s mine-to-magnet strategy, establishing a vertically integrated supply chain for permanent magnets, starting from our two ionic clay deposits in Brazil and Chile, moving into our HREE separation facility in Louisiana and supplying alloys to our strategic alliance with magnet-maker VAC (VACUUMSCHMELZE), who are currently building a permanent magnet production facility in Sumter, SC.
Aclara will invest approximately US$277 million to develop the Project on an 82-acre Louisiana Economic Development (LED) certified site at the Port of Vinton. The site offers direct road and waterway access via the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and proximity to chlor-alkali facilities, with the LED Certified designation allowing for immediate industrial development and fast-track construction.
The Company is also planning an additional investment to construct a metals and alloys plant on the property, to support the high-performance permanent magnet industry. The separation technology being developed by Aclara is designed with scalability in mind, allowing potential capacity expansion to process material from other ionic clay deposits or compatible feedstocks in the future.
Hatch Ltd. has been retained to develop the engineering of the Project in addition to its work relating to the Company’s Carina project located in the State of Goiás, Brazil , ensuring strong coordination across projects, driving cost efficiencies, and optimizing schedules, with an aim to reduce execution
risk.
Aclara is also collaborating with Virginia Tech (VT) to validate its proprietary separation process through a pilot plant whose construction is currently underway and expected to be fully operational by Q1 2026. By the time production is expected to start at the Louisiana plant, Aclara expects to have accumulated approximately 1.5 years of feed-specific operational data that will serve to accelerate the ramp-up, optimize efficiency and maintain steady-state operations.
Once secured feed is achieved, the Project will become the only HREE separation facility in the United States that is integrated with ionic-clay deposits from friendly jurisdictions, ensuring the reliable production of significant quantities of HREEs. Aclara’s simultaneous optimization of mining and separation processes provides a competitive advantage among ionic clay developers and accelerates project execution.
Significant progress has been achieved at the Company’s Goiania pilot plant to enhance the purity of the mixed rare earth carbonate that will supply the Louisiana separation facility upon successful production from the Carina Project. The Carina Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), prepared by Hatch, is scheduled for publication in early November 2025, with the Feasibility Study (FS) expected in Q2 2026.