LAKEWOOD, Colo., June 17,
2024 /PRNewswire/ - Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE
American: UUUU) (TSX: EFR) ("Energy Fuels" or the
"Company"), a leading U.S. producer of uranium, rare earth
elements ("REEs"), and vanadium, is pleased to welcome
Debra Bennethum to Energy Fuels'
Management Team as Director, Critical Minerals & Strategic
Supply Chain. Ms. Bennethum is a chemical engineer who previously
served as the EV Critical Minerals Manager in the Global Purchasing
and Supply Chain Division of General Motors ("GM"), and
previously as the Program Purchasing Manager for GM's Battery
Electric Vehicles and Crossovers division. At GM, Ms. Bennethum
executed supply strategies to ensure resilient EV critical mineral
supply chains, which included the REEs for production of permanent
magnets as well as battery critical minerals. She also identified
innovative suppliers, vetted technical merit, evaluated cost
competitiveness, and led negotiations for long-term supply
arrangements. She further managed over $1.5 billion in investment projects from
conception to execution, collaborating with engineering and
internal stakeholders to ensure resilient supply chains for GM.
Energy Fuels believes Ms. Bennethum's experience at General
Motors will provide Energy Fuels with invaluable insight and
experience to fill a critical role in the Company's REE sales and
marketing enterprises, including cultivating relationships with
original equipment manufacturer ("OEM") and other customers,
negotiating supply, offtake and/or other agreements for the
Company's REE products, evaluating REE collaborations in
metal-making, alloying, and/or magnet-making, and assisting in
evaluating, and potentially pursuing, government funding and other
support.
MARK S. CHALMERS, PRESIDENT
AND CEO OF ENERGY FUELS STATED:
"I would like to personally welcome Debra Bennethum to the Energy Fuels team. Ms.
Bennethum brings a wealth of knowledge and relationships in EV and
automotive supply chains to advance Energy Fuels' U.S.-leading,
integrated rare earth business, which recently began commercial
production of 'on spec' separated rare earths at our White Mesa
Mill in Utah, USA. Ms. Bennethum
will be based in Detroit,
Michigan, which is the hub of the U.S. automotive industry.
Having worked at GM for over 12 years, including key roles in EV,
hybrid and critical mineral supply chains, we believe Ms. Bennethum
is the ideal person to lead Energy Fuels' rare earth marketing
efforts and collaborations, including the sale of our products to
metal-makers, magnet-makers, EV and automotive OEMs, renewable
energy companies, rare earth recycling companies, U.S. defense
suppliers, and other customers. Ms. Bennethum is well-known
throughout the rare earth industry, and we believe her decision to
join Energy Fuels is a significant 'vote of confidence' in our rare
earth plans going forward."
FINISHED AND PACKAGED SEPARATED NDPR AT ENERGY FUELS' WHITE
MESA MILL
As previously announced on June 10,
2024, Energy Fuels has achieved commercial production of 'on
spec' separated rare earth elements at its 100%-owned White Mesa
Mill in Utah (the "Mill"),
while simultaneously advancing uranium production. The Company's
new "Phase 1" REE separation circuit has the capacity to produce
roughly 850 to 1,000 metric tons ("tonnes") of separated
neodymium-praseodymium ("NdPr") per year. It is the
Company's belief that this is one of the largest commercial REE
separation circuits in the World, ex China.
The Mill has begun drying and packaging separated NdPr, which is
expected to continue through the end of the quarter. As previously
announced, the Company expects to produce roughly 25 to 35 tonnes
of 'on spec' separated NdPr in Q2-2024, before shifting operations
to processing inventoried uranium ores and alternate feed materials
for the remainder of the year. During the current REE campaign, the
Mill will also produce a "heavy" REE concentrate, containing
roughly 1,500 kilograms of dysprosium ("Dy") and 400 kilograms of
terbium ("Tb"). The Company plans to utilize all or a portion of
this "heavy" REE concentrate for pilot-scale test work to design,
permit and construct commercial Dy, Tb and potentially other REE
separation at the Mill in the coming years.
ABOUT ENERGY FUELS
Energy Fuels is a leading US-based uranium and critical
minerals company. The Company, as a leading producer of uranium in
the United States, mines uranium
and produces natural uranium concentrates that are sold to major
nuclear utilities for the production of carbon-free nuclear energy.
Energy Fuels recently began production of advanced
REE materials, including mixed REE carbonate in
2021, and commenced production of commercial quantities of
separated REEs in 2024. Energy Fuels also produces vanadium from
certain of its projects, as market conditions warrant, and is
evaluating the recovery of radionuclides needed for emerging cancer
treatments. Its corporate offices are in Lakewood, Colorado, near Denver, and substantially all its assets and
employees are in the United
States. Energy Fuels holds two of America's key uranium
production centers: the White Mesa Mill in Utah and the Nichols Ranch in-situ recovery
("ISR") Project in Wyoming.
The White Mesa Mill is the only conventional uranium mill operating
in the US today, has a licensed capacity of over 8 million pounds
of U3O8 per year, and has the ability to
produce vanadium when market conditions warrant, as well as REE
products, from various uranium-bearing ores. The Nichols Ranch ISR
Project is on standby and has a licensed capacity of 2 million
pounds of U3O8 per year. The Company recently
acquired the Bahia Project in Brazil and entered into a joint venture
agreement to develop the Donald Project in Australia, each
of which is believed to have significant quantities of
titanium (ilmenite and rutile), zirconium (zircon) and REE
(monazite) minerals. In addition to the above production
facilities, Energy Fuels also has one of the largest NI 43-101
compliant uranium resource portfolios in the US and several uranium
and uranium/vanadium mining projects in production, on standby and
in various stages of permitting and development. The primary
trading market for Energy Fuels' common shares is the NYSE American
under the trading symbol "UUUU," and the Company's common shares
are also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading
symbol "EFR." Energy Fuels' website is www.energyfuels.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements: This news release contains certain "Forward
Looking Information" and "Forward Looking Statements" within the
meaning of applicable United
States and Canadian securities legislation, which may
include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: any
expectation that the Company will maintain its position as a
leading U.S.-based uranium and critical minerals company or as the
leading producer of uranium in the U.S.; any expectation that the
Company will be successful in cultivating relationships with
OEM and other customers; any expectation that the Company will be
successful in negotiating satisfactory supply, offtake and/or other
agreements for the Company's REE products with metal-makers,
magnet-makers, EV and automotive OEMs, renewable energy companies,
rare earth recycling companies, U.S. defense suppliers, or other
customers; any expectation that the Company will be
successful in entering the REE metal, alloy, and magnet-making
space; any expectation that the Company will be successful
in obtaining government funding and other support for any of its
activities; any expectation that the Company has one of the
largest commercial REE separation circuits in the World, ex
China; any expectation that the
Company will be successful in designing, permitting and
constructing commercial Dy, Tb and potentially other REE separation
at the Mill in the coming years; any expectation as to production
levels or timing or duration of production from any of the
Company's mines, facilities or projects; any expectation as to
costs of production at any of the Company's mines, facilities or
other projects; any expectation that the Bahia and Donald Projects
have significant quantities of titanium (ilmenite and rutile),
zirconium (zircon) and REE (monazite) minerals; any expectation
that the Company will be successful in advancing its REE
initiatives or that it will be successful in installing REE
production capacity at the Mill and the timing of installation of
any such production capacity; and any expectation as to the
success of the Company's permitting programs. Generally, these
forward-looking statements can be identified by the use
of forward-looking terminology such as "plans," "expects," "does
not expect," "is expected," "is likely," "budgets," "scheduled,"
"estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates," "does not
anticipate," or "believes," or variations of such words and
phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may,"
"could," "would," "might" or "will be taken," "occur," "be
achieved" or "have the potential to." All statements, other than
statements of historical fact, herein are considered to be
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may
cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the
Company to be materially different from any future results,
performance or achievements express or implied by the
forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results
to differ materially from those anticipated in these
forward-looking statements include risks associated with:
commodity prices and price fluctuations; engineering, construction,
processing and mining difficulties, upsets and delays; permitting
and licensing requirements and delays; changes to regulatory
requirements; legal challenges; the availability of feed
sources for the Mill; competition from other producers; public
opinion; government and political actions; the failure of
the Company to provide or obtain the necessary financing required
to develop any of its projects or initiatives; available
supplies of monazite; the ability of the Mill to
produce rare earth carbonate, rare earth element oxides or other
rare earth element products to meet commercial specifications on a
commercial scale at acceptable costs or at all; market factors,
including future demand for uranium, rare earth elements and heavy
mineral sand concentrates; the ability of the Mill to be able to
separate radium or other radioisotopes at reasonable costs or at
all; market prices and demand for medical isotopes; and the other
factors described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's
most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is available
for review on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml, on SEDAR at
www.sedar.com, and on the Company's website at www.energyfuels.com.
Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date
of this news release, and the Company disclaims, other than as
required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking
statements whether as a result of new information, results, future
events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions
should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that
forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual
results and future events could differ materially from those
anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is
cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking
statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update the
information in this communication, except as otherwise required by
law.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-critical-minerals-leader-from-general-motors-joins-energy-fuels-to-advance-rare-earth-business-separated-ndpr-now-being-packaged-at-energy-fuels-white-mesa-mill-302173779.html
SOURCE Energy Fuels Inc.