The US Department of Defense has awarded Australia-based Lynas Rare Earths a contract for $120 million to develop a first-of-its-kind heavy rare earth separation facility in Texas, Kallanish reports.

The full-scale commercial plant. First announced in July 2020, it would be the first outside of China to process heavy rare earths.

The follow-on contract with subsidiary Lynas USA LLC supports Lynas’ efforts to establish an operating footprint in the United States, and US industries will have access to domestically produced heavy rare earths that cannot be sourced today. Heavy rare earths are key to electric vehicles, wind turbines, electronics and military weaponry.

The facility is expected to be located within an existing industrial area on the Gulf Coast of Texas, and it should be in operation in fiscal year 2025, Lynas says in a statement.

The heavy rare earth plant will be located near Lynas’ planned light rare earth separation plant, which was announced in early 2021 with US government support in a $30.4m grant. That facility is being developed in Hondo, Texas, west of San Antonio. It is half funded by DOD.

Feedstock for the heavy rare earth processing plant will come from Lynas’ Mt Weld mine in Western Australia. The company will work with potential third-party providers to source other suitable feedstocks as they become available. Lynas now processes its heavy rare earths from Australia into rare earth oxides in Malaysia.

“The development of a US heavy rare earths separation plant is an important part of our accelerated growth plan, and we look forward to not only meeting the rare earth needs of the US government but also reinvigorating the local rare earths market. This includes working to develop the rare earths supply chain and value-added activities,” says Lynas ceo and managing director Amanda Lacaze.