Site includes 42 acres with approximately 425,000 square feet currently under roof, with ability to expand to 675,000 square feet of purified rare earth and critical mineral production
Site will produce ultra-pure battery elements (lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese) and rare earth elements (neodymium, dysprosium and praseodymium) for EV battery and permanent magnet supply chains
FISHERS, IN / ACCESSWIRE / July 13, 2023 / American Resources Corporation’s (NASDAQ:AREC) (“American Resources” or the “Company”) wholly owned subsidiary, ReElement Technologies LLC, a leading provider of high performance refining capacity of battery and rare earth elements, is pleased to announce it has taken a controlling interest in the former RCA Thomson plant in Marion, Indiana, comprising 425,000 square feet manufacturing capacity on a 42 acre total campus for ReElement Technologies’ rare earth and battery material refining.
Mark Jensen, CEO of American Resources commented, “After almost a year of careful analysis and extensive due diligence, we are excited to announce our expansion in Marion, Indiana for our second battery and rare earth element refining facility. This community lost nearly 4,000 jobs when the RCA Thomson facility shut down, and our redevelopment of this site is an incredible opportunity to become a major hub in the growing electrified economy for generations to come. The critical minerals refined in this facility will power products as diverse as the electric vehicle on the road to the F-35 fighter jets defending the US overseas. We are excited to have a community that shares our pride in powering America’s tomorrow.”
Marion, Indiana was selected by ReElement Technologies for this next phase of expansion after several months of careful analysis and examination of several potential sites throughout the Midwest. The resulting size and scope of the facility is dependent upon finalizing and receiving city and state incentives, which is anticipated to support a range of 30 jobs with no incentives and scaling up to approximately 300 jobs with full anticipated incentives.
At full scope, the site and facility will provide for:
- 42 acres with ample areas for operations and future development;
- 425,000 square feet of existing production facility space and support structures;
- 250,000 square feet of additional foundation-ready space to expand production facilities or structures for further growth;
- Production of Rare Earth Elements: Target initial capacity of 2 metric tons per day of purified rare earth elements sourced from end-of-life magnets, such as those found in high-efficiency motors, electric vehicles, wind turbines, power tools, and hard drives. This will be the largest such producer of heavy rare earth elements outside of China.
- Production of Battery Materials: Target initial capacity 50 metric tons per day of lithium-ion battery input material sourced from end-of-life batteries and manufacturing waste, such as those found from electric vehicle batteries, power tool batteries, specialty batteries, with the ability to process a wide range of lithium-ion battery chemistries including Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) and Nickle Manganese Cobalt (NMC).
- Providing for a complete, domestic beginning-to-end solution of the battery and magnet supply chain: The campus is being designed to drive collaboration with industry partners in the battery and magnet supply chain by creating co-locating partners in the electrified value chain within the campus; reducing costs, maximizing productivity, and significantly reducing the carbon footprint of products produced.
- Rail loadout on site along with 37 truck bays for enhanced transportation logistics, including access to major highways and interstate travel, with a central location to many potential customers within the automobile, battery and magnet industries in the US battery belt.
- Exceptional community support for ReElement Technologies, along with access to several important educational institutions, such as Indiana Wesleyan University, Ivy Tech Community College, Taylor University and Purdue University which can provide skilled personnel to ReElement Technologies’ expanding workforce.
Mr. Jensen further stated, “In addition to the buildings themselves, the community possesses all of the key attributes we were looking for in a location including onsite infrastructure and the workforce to be able to further scale our world-leading, critical mineral refining solutions to feed the domestic manufacturing of electrified and cleantech goods. The size and scope of our facility and its operations will be dependent on working with the city, county, and state on potential incentives to help meet the full scope of the facility, with a goal of achieving over 300 jobs in the long term from ReElement Technologies. The size of this campus also allows us to build the electrified value stack, bringing in both up and downstream partners within the electrified economy. We are also applying for additional federal incentives to further supplement our expansion thereafter.”
Mark Jensen continued, “This prime location in the Midwest battery corridor offers excellent logistics and knowledge clusters within this critical industry. We hope to work with all stakeholders to build a robust domestic supply chain and for the future protection of our country by reshoring rare earth and battery refining from China, the county that dominates the market today.”
The ReElement facility will refine both battery and rare earth elements to ultra-high purity through the use of the Company’s patented and revolutionary chromatography process. ReElement Technologies will invest and expand upon its proprietary chromatography refining process to support the Company’s next level of its commercial expansion. Following its renovation and upon receipt of the potential incentives, the Marion facility will scale up to an initially targeted production capacity of 5,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide or carbonate per year, and 750 metric tons per year of rare earth oxides, with the ability to continually and efficiently expand production capacity by adding modular production trains as the market matures.
ReElement Technologies is continually evaluating additional sites in the United States and throughout the world for additional expansion and upstream and downstream partnerships. The environmentally friendly technology offers a unique capability to co-locate and scale modularly with a low capex and operational costs compared to legacy solvent and hydro metallurgical refining technologies with a significantly easier permitting process.
ReElement Technologies is committed to leading the world and domestic supply chain with advanced and innovative refining of rare earth and critical battery elements. The Company has proven that its patented chromatographic separation and purification process is a low cost, scalable, flexible and environmentally-safe replacement to the existing environmentally and socially toxic refining methods used around the globe for rare earth and critical element processing. As the Company executes and scales its production, it will significantly reduce the United States’ dependency on foreign nations for the supply of these critical raw materials while also creating a true circular life-cycle solution.
Learn more about ReElement Technologies’ process and technology here – Video.
About ReElement Technologies LLC
ReElement Technologies LLC is redefining how critical and rare earth elements are both sourced and processed while focusing on the recycling of end-of-life products such as rare earth permanent magnets and lithium-ion batteries, as well as coal-based waste streams and byproducts to create a low-cost and environmentally-safe, circular supply chain. ReElement has developed its innovative and scalable “Capture-Process-Purify” process chain in conjunction with its licensed intellectual property including 16 patents and technologies and sponsored research partnerships with three leading universities to support the domestic supply chain’s growing demand for magnet and battery metals. For more information visit reelementtech.com or connect with the Company on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
About American Resources Corporation
American Resources Corporation is a next-generation, environmentally and socially responsible supplier of high-quality raw materials to the new infrastructure market. The Company is focused on the extraction and processing of metallurgical carbon, an essential ingredient used in steelmaking, critical and rare earth minerals for the electrification market, and reprocessed metal to be recycled. American Resources has a growing portfolio of operations located in the Central Appalachian basin of eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia where premium quality metallurgical carbon and rare earth mineral deposits are concentrated.
American Resources has established a nimble, low-cost business model centered on growth, which provides a significant opportunity to scale its portfolio of assets to meet the growing global infrastructure and electrification markets while also continuing to acquire operations and significantly reduce their legacy industry risks. Its streamlined and efficient operations are able to maximize margins while reducing costs. For more information visit americanresourcescorp.com or connect with the Company on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause the Company’s actual results, performance, or achievements or industry results to differ materially from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond American Resources Corporation’s control. The words “believes”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “would”, “could”, “continue”, “seeks”, “anticipates”, “plans”, “expects”, “intends”, “estimates”, or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. Any forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this release. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. The Company cannot assure you that the projected results or events will be achieved.
Investor Contact:
JTC Team, LLC
Jenene Thomas
833-475-8247
arec@jtcir.com
RedChip Companies Inc.
Todd McKnight
1-800-RED-CHIP (733-2447)
Info@redchip.com
Company Contact:
Mark LaVerghetta
Vice President of Corporate Finance and Communications
317-855-9926 ext. 0
investor@americanresourcescorp.com
SOURCE: American Resources Corporation
