Rare Element Resources

Randall J. Scott has held the President and CEO role since 2012 after serving as a board member earlier in the company's history. He is a mining engineer by training and previously led project development efforts at other natural resource companies. Major strategic decisions—particularly those involving the Bear Lodge Project's licensing, permitting, and the Department of Energy cooperative agreement—are executed by the executive team under Scott's direction, with board oversight reflecting the influence of long-term institutional shareholders including General Atomics' Synchron entity.

Bear Lodge is a carbonatite-hosted deposit in Wyoming's Black Hills region with an oxidized zone that allows for relatively straightforward acid-bake extraction of rare earths at high recoveries. The mineralized zones carry elevated concentrations of the magnet-essential elements, particularly neodymium and praseodymium, plus modest dysprosium and terbium grades that improve the overall basket price. Unlike many U.S. rare earth deposits that remain trapped in mining-permit limbo, Bear Lodge has an associated processing permit and a pilot plant track record that separated saleable rare earth oxides as early as 2019.

General Atomics, through its affiliated entity Synchron, participated in an earlier demonstration plant cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy alongside Rare Element Resources. Synchron has been a strategic shareholder, reflecting General Atomics' broader interest in securing domestic rare earth supply chains for defense applications. The partnership provides technical and commercial validation but does not make Rare Element Resources a captive supplier—the company retains an independent public board and operational control over the Bear Lodge Project.

Yes. In 2019, the company completed a pilot plant campaign using its proprietary hydrometallurgical process, conducted at Ucore Rare Metals' facility in Ontario. The campaign produced neodymium-praseodymium oxide and lanthanum oxide that met or exceeded commercial purity specifications. This pilot data underpins the design of the Upton, Wyoming demonstration plant and provides a basis for later-stage offtake discussions with magnet manufacturers.

The demonstration-scale rare earth separation facility in Upton, Wyoming completed front-end engineering and design in May 2023 (per the firm's official communications). The project operates under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory, which has committed staged funding. Construction and commissioning timelines remain subject to additional funding tranches and final equipment procurement, but the facility holds a Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality permit—a regulatory milestone that places it ahead of most North American rare earth processing proposals.

The company explicitly targets the magnet rare earths—neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium—which are critical inputs for permanent magnets used in electric vehicle drivetrains, wind turbines, and defense guidance systems. Bear Lodge's resource base also contains lanthanum, cerium, and samarium, but the economic thesis hinges on the higher-value magnet elements where demand growth is expected to outpace global supply through the 2030s.

The company holds a Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality permit for the Upton rare earth processing and separation facility, which addresses air quality, water discharge, and hazardous material handling. The Bear Lodge mine site itself is on federally administered land in the Black Hills National Forest and would require a full National Environmental Policy Act review, mine plan of operations approval from the U.S. Forest Service, and additional state-level permits before any mining could commence. The separation permit therefore represents a partially derisked position: a processing facility that could operate on third-party feedstock even if mine permitting timelines extend.