History
Rare Element Resources built a Wyoming rare-earth project through the early 2010s, survived a price slump with help from General Atomics, and by 2024 was building a demonstration plant.
2010-2012: Proving up Bear Lodge
Rare Element Resources was cleared to trade on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2010. Its focus was the Bear Lodge project in Wyoming, which it aimed to develop into a source of rare earths. In September 2011 it finished small-scale lab tests on high-grade material from the Bull Hill deposit, predicting 80-85% of the rare-earth oxide could be recovered, and moved on to pilot-plant testing.
Drilling in 2011 returned strong results at Bull Hill and Whitetail Ridge, and found a new area, East Taylor, where rare earths and gold overlapped. In January 2012 the company raised its Bull Hill measured-and-indicated resource by 38% to 6.8 million tons at 3.75% rare-earth oxide, lifting total contained oxide across all deposits 26% to 1.83 billion pounds. In March 2012 it reported the best gold drilling results in the district's history from its Sundance Gold Project, which surrounds Bull Hill. Days later it delivered a positive Pre-Feasibility Study, estimating life-of-mine capital costs at $445.9 million.
2013-2016: A weak market and a retreat
In September 2013 the company raised $8 million from institutional investors, with an option for $4 million more, to keep working toward a bankable feasibility study. Shares on issue rose from about 44.2 million at the end of 2011 to about 47.6 million by the end of 2013.
In August 2014 it updated the study with a smaller, cheaper design, cutting initial capital from $375 million to $290 million while still showing a $330 million after-tax value and a 29% return. The scale-down was a response to weak rare-earth prices. The financial strain then showed. In February 2016 the company voluntarily left the NYSE MKT exchange for the OTC Pink marketplace. In October 2016 it sold 640 acres of non-core land near Bear Lodge to Whitelaw Creek LLC for $600,000, keeping a right to buy it back.
2017-2020: General Atomics steps in
In August 2017 the company signed a term sheet with General Atomics, and the deal closed in October. Its affiliate Synchron paid $4.752 million for a 33.5% stake, with an option toward 49%, two board seats, minority-protection voting rights and rights to the company's rare-earth separation technology. Shares on issue rose from about 52.9 million to about 79.6 million over 2017. The financing crisis was resolved, though the project stayed on a care-and-maintenance program. The beats say nothing more about 2018 to 2020, so the record is quiet.
2021-2024: The demonstration plant
By October 2021 Synchron was the largest shareholder at 48.3%. It lent the company $1 million at 8% interest to cover the costs of a rights offering, an offer of new shares to existing holders, and early work on a rare-earth separation demonstration plant. In December 2021 the company agreed to fund General Atomics' 50% share of a $44 million US Department of Energy cooperative agreement, with up to $21.9 million in federal funding, contingent on completing a $25 million rights offering. In June 2023 it finalized a $4.4 million grant from the Wyoming Energy Authority.
In March 2024, under new CEO Brent Berg, it published a new resource estimate for Bull Hill focused on the magnet-material elements neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium, using a higher-grade, smaller-pit design. The demonstration plant was then under construction in Upton, Wyoming. On 25 October 2024 the company exercised its option to buy back the 640 acres sold in 2016, paying 5 million shares plus $1.507 million in cash.
Written from the 18 story beats below (2010 to 25 Oct 2024), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.