HOUSTON, December 9th (Argus) - American magnet producer Realloys (REA) has signed a five-year agreement with the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) of Canada to purchase rare earth materials.
REA stated on Monday that under the agreement, REA will purchase 80% of the annual production of praseodymium-neodymium metal, dysprosium oxide, and terbium oxide from the SRC's rare earth processing plant in Saskatoon.
REA also collaborated with SRC to conduct a feasibility study on the large-scale rare earth processing, separation, and metallization complex facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
REA will invest 21 million US dollars to expand the Saskatoon plant of SRC, increasing its production capacity to 400 tons of praseodymium-neodymium metal, 30 tons of dysprosium oxide, and 15 tons of terbium oxide per year, and plans to further expand the production of praseodymium-neodymium to 600 tons per year.
The facility is scheduled to start operation in December 2026 and be fully operational in 2027. The company has received 71 million Canadian dollars (equivalent to 51 million US dollars) from the Saskatchewan provincial government and 30 million Canadian dollars from the Canadian federal government.
The facility will serve as the predecessor of the commercial facility in Saskatoon planned by REA. The designed production capacity of this facility is 200 tons of metal dysprosium, 85 tons of metal terbium, and 2,700 tons of praseodymium-neodymium metal per year.
