American Rare Earths Limited (ASX: ARR) has announced the commencement of work on a small-scale continuous pilot plant aimed at producing neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, followed by NdPr metal, from its Halleck Creek ore. American Rare Earths is a critical minerals company focused on reshaping the U.S. rare earths industry through its Halleck Creek Project in Wyoming. The rare earth concentrate from the Halleck Creek deposit has been delivered to Novex, LLC, where the pilot plant for this program has been constructed at their research facility in the United States.
This initiative, undertaken by the company’s wholly owned subsidiary Wyoming Rare (USA) Inc., is designed to enhance metallurgical understanding of the Halleck Creek ore body. Crucially, the program aims to demonstrate the midstream step from separated oxide to the metal used in permanent magnets, a critical part of the supply chain predominantly controlled outside the United States. The work supports ARR’s strategy to integrate its Halleck Creek resource into the U.S. midstream rare earths industry, addressing a key bottleneck in the production of materials essential for advanced technologies.
The core program is structured into three distinct phases. Phase 1 involves laboratory process verification, establishing optimal operating conditions. This is followed by Phase 2, a small-scale continuous pilot plant campaign to produce purified NdPr oxide. Finally, Phase 3 will focus on converting this qualified NdPr oxide into NdPr metal specimens. The company expects the entire program to be finalised in the first quarter of 2027, with the results slated to inform the design and operating parameters of a larger continuous demonstration plant planned at the Saskatchewan Research Council later that year. American Rare Earths CEO Mark Wall highlighted the significance, stating, “This is the first time Halleck Creek material has gone into a connected circuit designed to take it all the way from concentrate to separated NdPr oxide and then to NdPr metal. That is the part of the supply chain the United States most needs to rebuild, and we are testing it on our own ore.”
