Launches US Department of Defense Funded $18.4 Million Commercial Rare Earth Refining Project Ucore announces: Initiation of the USD $18.4 million DOD Phase 2 award for the scale - up of its Louisiana commercial rare earth refining complex,
85401206.3
Ucore
Launches US Department of Defense
Funded
$18.4 Million
Commercial Rare Earth
Refining Project
Ucore announces:
Initiation of the
USD
$18.4 million DOD
Phase 2
award for the scale
-
up of its
Louisiana commercial rare earth refining complex,
Successful separation of terbium and dysprosium
-
critical heavy rare earth
elements (“HREEs”)
-
further to its US DoD
Phase 1 project
, resulting in a
payment in the amount of USD $1.1 million
.
An appreciation
for
recent
DoD actions
to diversify and secure domestic
production,
especially
HREE
s
,
which are tightly controlled by China.
Halifax, Nova Scotia (
Ju
ly
14
, 2025
)
–
Ucore
Rare
Metals
Inc.
(TSXV:
UCU
)
(OTCQX:
UURAF
)
(
“
Ucore
”
or
the
“
Company
”
)
is pleased
to announce
that
the Company
and
representatives of the US Department of Defense
(the “
Project Team
”)
have
completed
their
formal
project kick off meeting with respect to the Company’s
previously announced
USD$18.4 million
Phase 2
Award
(the “
Phase 2 Award
” or the “
Award
”). The Award
facilitates
the construction of the Company’s first commercial scale RapidSX
TM
machine at its
proposed Louisiana rare earth refining
facility
, which is focused on heavy rare earth elements
(HREEs)
.
The Phase 2 Award
is in addition to the previously announced award in the amount
of US
D
$4
million
(the “
Phase 1 Award
”)
. The Phase 1 Award
is a demonstration program to show the
efficacy of the company’s RapidSX
™
proprietary processing in unlocking four primary
rare
earths
required to produce rare earth permanent magnets
–
including highly sought after
dysprosium.
The Phase 2 Award is
being administered
as
an increase to the Company’s
existing
Phase 1 Agreement.
HREEs are crucial to US national security due to their vital rol
e
in advanced military
technologies. Essential components
utilizing
these materials include
power precision
-
guided
missiles, radar systems
,
and F
-
35 jet engines. Beyond defense, HREEs are critical for
advanced technologies like electric vehicles, renewable energy, robotics,
artificial intelligence
and semiconductors. Ucore’s strategic partnership with
the
DOD, in particular as it relates to
HREEs
,
is designed to address potential vulnerabilities as China continues to restrict exports
,
and thus
help ensure
US technological leadership in geopolitically tense times.
Phase 2 Award
Update
-
Commercial Scale
-
Up
During the kick
-
off meeting, t
he
Project Team confirmed near
-
t
erm
milestones and
deliverables
which are currently under way,
including:
detailed design
and
engineering
of commercial
-
scale RapidSX
™
columns at the
Company’s Commercialization and Demonstration Facility in Kingston, Ontario (the
“
CDF
”);
Facility Engineering field work
for the SMC in Alexandria, Louisiana
.
–
2
–
85401206.3
Work under the Award will culminate with the
construct
ion of
one commercial
-
scale
RapidSX
™
machine within the SMC
in Louisiana
, including commissioning, demonstration,
and achieving ‘Early Production’ readiness of salable individual rare
-
earth element (“
REE
”)
products
.
For further information with respect to the Phase 2 Award, please see Ucore press
releases dated
May 14, 2025
and
June 2, 2025
.
“
With Phase 2 of the Award fully mobilized we are
now
moving RapidSX
™
from
Commercial
Demonstration scale toward Full Scale Production
”
, said Mike Schrider, Chief Operating
Officer of Ucore.
“
The DoD’s continued support of our project and the rare earth sector at
large will accelerate this process and help secure a North American rare earth supply chain.
”
Figure 1:
Borehole drilling being undertaken in Alexandria, LA, further to environmental, geometric,
geotechnical, topographical, and utility assessments.
Phase 1 Award Update
–
Commercial Demonstration
The
Company
has completed the next significant DOD milestone by successfully
separating
terbium from dysprosium
, the two critical HREEs used in permanent magnets
.
As such the
company
further reports that it has
received payment from the DoD
in the amount of
USD$1,057,412
further to
Phase 1 of the Company’s DoD Award.
These invoices bring total
payments received
with respect to the
Phase 1 Award
to
USD$3,352,884
.
A total of
USD$647,116
remains to be invoiced
further to
the
Phase 1 Award. T
he Company
expect
s
to submit these invoices in the coming months
following
the completion of the
associated milestones and reporting
. The
Phase
1
A
ward
is being completed on a parallel
path
to the initiation of the Phase 2
Award
.
Last
ly
,
Ucore acknowledges and supports the U.S. Department of Defense’s broader
strategic initiatives to strengthen the domestic rare earth element (REE) supply chain.
Recent policy considerations, including pricing floors and offtake commitments represent
critic
al mechanisms to enhance industry stability and investment confidence. These
efforts, alongside direct project funding such as the Phase 2 Award, are instrumental in
advancing a robust, North American
-
centric REE supply chain independent of Chinese
control
.
–
3
–
85401206.3
# # #
About Ucore Rare Metals Inc.
Ucore is focused on rare
-
and critical
-
metal resources, extraction, beneficiation, and
separation technologies with the potential for production, growth, and scalability. Ucore
’
s
vision and plan is to become a leading advanced technology company, providing best
-
in
-
class metal separation products and services to the mining and mineral extraction industry.
Through strategic partnerships, this plan includes disrupting the People
’
s Republic of China
’
s
control of the North American REE supply chain through the near
-
term development of a
heavy and light rare
-
earth processing facility in the US State of Louisiana, subsequent SMCs
in Canada and Alaska and the longer
-
term development of Ucore
’
s 100% controlled
Bokan
-
Dotson Ridge Rare Heavy REE Project on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska, USA
(“
Bokan
”)
.
Ucore is listed on the TSXV under the trading symbol
“
UCU
”
and in the United States on the
OTC Markets
’
OTCQX
®
Best Market under the ticker symbol
“
UURAF
.
”
For further information, please visit
www.ucore.com
.
Forward
-
Looking Statements
This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed
“
forward
-
looking
statements
”
.
All statements in this release (other than statements of historical facts) that
address future business development, technological development and/or acquisition activities
(including any related required financings), timelines, events, or developments tha
t the
Company is pursuing are forward
-
looking statements. Although the Company believes the
expectations expressed in such forward
-
looking statements are based on reasonable
assumptions, such statements are not
g
uarantees of future performance or results,
and actual
results or developments may differ materially from those in forward
-
looking statements.
Regarding the disclosure in the press release above
about the
amended
OT
A
greement
and
the expected successful progress of the
p
roject and the resulting milestone payments from
the DoD
,
the Company has assumed that the
p
roject (including each of its milestones
and
the Company’s objectives in this regard
) will be completed in a satisfactory manner and in a
reasonable period of time within approximately the next two years.
Regarding the disclosure
in the press release above about
the other forms of government support for Ucore, t
he
Company has assumed that the
applicable
project
s
(including each of
the
associated
milestones) will be c
ompleted satisfactoril
y and in accordance with the respective agreements
or letters of intent (as applicable) for such government support.
For additional risks and
uncertainties regarding the Company
,
its business activities
,
its ability to qualify for and
receive any additional funding from any U.S. or Canadian government, the CDF and the
aforementioned projects (generally),
see the risk disclosure
in
the Company’s MD&A for Q1
202
5
(filed on SEDAR
+
on
May
9
, 202
5
) (
www.sedarplus.ca
) as well as the risks de
scribed
below.
Regarding the disclosure
above
in the
“
About Ucore Rare Metals Inc.
”
section, the Company
has assumed that it will be able to procure or retain additional partners and/or suppliers, in
addition to Innovation Metals Corp. (
“
IMC
”
), as suppliers for Ucore
’
s expected future SMCs.
Ucore has also assumed that sufficient external funding will be found to
continue and
–
4
–
85401206.3
complete
the
ongoing research and development
work required at the
CDF
and also later
prepare a new National Instrument 43
-
101 technical report that demonstrates that Bokan is
feasible and economically viable for the production of both REE and co
-
product metals and
the then
-
prevailing market prices based upon assumed customer offtake agreements. Ucore
has also assumed that sufficient external funding will be secured to continue the development
of the specific engineering plans for the SMCs and their constru
ction
and eventual
commissioning and operations
. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those in forward
-
looking statements include, without limitation: IMC failing to protect its
intellectual property rights in RapidSX
™
; RapidSX
™
failing to demonstrate commercial
viability in large commercial
-
scale applications; Ucore not being able to procure additional
key partners or suppliers for the SMCs; Ucore not being able to raise sufficient funds to fund
the specific design and construc
tion of the SMCs and/or the continued development of
RapidSX
™
; adverse capital
-
market conditions; unexpected due
-
diligence findings; the
emergence of alternative superior metallurgy and metal
-
separation technologies; the inability
of Ucore and/or IMC to retain its key staff members; a change in the legislation in Lo
uisiana
or Alaska and/or in the support expressed by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export
Authority (AIDEA) regarding the development of Bokan; the availability and procurement of
any req
uired interim and/or long
-
term financing that may be required; and general economic,
market or business conditions.
Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined by the TSXV)
accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
CONTACTS
Mr. Michael Schrider, P.E., Ucore Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, is responsible
for the content of this news release and may be contacted at 1.902.482.5214.
For additional information, please contact:
Mark MacDonald
Vice President, Investor Relations
Ucore Rare Metals Inc.
1.902.482.5214