Search owns the patented Direct Extraction Process technology and owns 100% of a critical rare earth element district in southeast Labrador, Canada, while USA Rare Earth is developing the Round Top heavy rare earth and critical minerals project in western Texas.
The collaboration is in line with the U.S.-Canada Joint Action Plan on Critical Minerals Collaboration the two countries agreed early this year, the companies said in a joint statement.
The governmental agreement is intended to advance "mutual interest(s) in securing supply chains for the critical minerals needed for important manufacturing sectors, including communication technology, aerospace and defence, and clean technology."
Search recently signed an agreement wth the Saskatchewan Research Council for the planned rare earths processing facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It has several projects in Canada in varying stages of development.
Aside from being a development and funding partner for Round Top, USA Rare Earth owns sintered rare earth magnet manufacturing equipment previously owned and operated by Hitachi Metals in North Carolina. Earlier this year it opened a rare earth and critical minerals facility in Wheat Ridge to commission a pilot plant using Continuous Ion Exchange (CIX) extraction, separation and recovery methods using feedstock from Round Top and other sources outside China.
The coollaboration between USA Rare Earth and Search will involve technical assistance through joint technical meetings, sharing of data, site visits and reviews and collaboration around the engineering and development of their critical material projects.
"Search's Labrador projects and USA Rare Earth's Round Top project are highly complementary in terms of supplying our sintered neo magnet plant with all four neo magnet rare earths," said USA Rare Earth chief executive Pini Althaus.
Acccording to the comanuies, growth in rare earth markets is being driven by rare earth magnets, or neo magnets, used in electric motors for electric vehicles and generators in wind turbines. Neo magnets use alloys including neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium.
