One of the steps to turning two separated rare earth minerals into a metal that can be then utilized in the creation of electric vehicles in Saskatchewan. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)

By Libby Giesbrecht, CKOM News Staff

Sask. to become home to ‘transformative’ rare earth production facility

Oct 5, 2022 | 9:01 AM

A feat of ingenuity is creating what could be the province’s next major resource thanks to a plant and technology — the first of its kind being developed right here in Saskatchewan.

The foundation of a new plant being constructed in Saskatoon is that rare earth minerals can create powerful magnets, the likes of which are used in major technological advancements like wind turbines, smartphones and electric vehicles.

Mike Crabtree, president and CEO of the Saskatchewan Research Council, called the rare earth minerals “critical,” and is excited to see North America — and Saskatchewan specifically — moving into the market.

Crabtree called that critical, too. He said China is currently responsible for 80 to 90 per cent of the rare earth market in the world, and he expressed a need for the west to create its own product to become less reliant on China.

That type of advancement is one that requires significant investment and time, Crabtree explained.

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Currently, the top four countries in the world for the rare earth minerals are China, Russia, Brazil and Australia, with Canada and the United States tied for fifth. Ukraine is also a major potential source of rare earth minerals.

Crabtree said the challenge to date with Canada becoming a more active participant in the rare earth market has been its inability to participate in the mid-stream process — essentially purifying, separating and creating the metal alloys needed to produce certain rare earth minerals for commercial manufacturing purposes.

The plant being constructed in Saskatoon off 51st Street remedies that challenge. It will house the first North American mines-to-metals rare earth processing facility.

It helps that Crabtree said Saskatchewan is rich in rare earth material, but the province also has significant reserves and expertise to mine these types of minerals. Given time and continued investment, Crabtree said he could see Canada moving up in its contribution to this market.

With places in the United States also working to build such facilities, Crabtree said Saskatchewan and Canada are set apart because the facility in Saskatoon will use a large quantity of water and chemicals without emitting a single litre of fluids.

Such an accomplishment would make Saskatchewan the first in the world to do this.

Crabtree said it is critical and core to their design that rare earth work be environmentally sustainable this way. The CEO guaranteed that in the next five years, nearly everyone will own an electric vehicle (EV).

“We need access to viable, environmentally sustainable rare earths,” he said. “The public are not going to tolerate driving around in EVs where there has been substantial environmental damage or where there has been inappropriate use of labour.”

He called it essential and transformative for Saskatchewan to pursue this course — with a focus on capitalizing this sector for the province, creating a sustainable Canadian industry and including Saskatchewan as part of the green transition for industry.

From mines to metals

During a tour detailing how the plant will extract and transform rare earth material, Crabtree explained that three processing stages — and four stages in total — designate the work of the vertically integrated plant.

Crabtree said the refinery is the arbiter and controls the flow of materials through the supply chain, which begins with the raw material.

The Saskatchewan plant will focus on the ore monazite, which is about 60 per cent rare earth materials. It looks like a black sand and is somewhat radioactive, according to Crabtree.

The material is worth about $10,000 per tonne.

From there, 17 rare earths are extracted and purified into a liquid form. Those 17 minerals are still mixed, but excess materials have been filtered out.

Crabtree said one tonne of the monazite sand will produce two tonnes of purified liquid materials, valued at $20,000 per tonne.

The next step sees those 17 elements separated from each other. The technology to do so was initially going to be purchased from China until a new piece of legislation prohibited it.

Knowing the cost of similar technology from another country would cost four to six times more, the question for the Saskatchewan Research Council became about how Saskatchewan could replicate that technology.

“In true SRC fashion,” Crabtree quipped.

A big piece with a significant advantage, Saskatchewan proceeded to create its own separation unit. Crabtree called it “redesigned,” and said there is significant intellectual property involved in the unit. A patent is pending on the new technology right now.

Crabtree outlined that the Saskatchewan-created technology is better, smaller and more efficient than other separation units. Each unit contains six cells within, and a space of 40 square feet will be required to house the 150 units that the plant will be utilizing.

The cherry on top: The final cost to build the separation unit was about the same as it would have been to purchase the units from China as originally planned, according to Crabtree.

“We have our own,” Crabtree said with pride.

A digital twin of the separation unit is also being developed for further use in the project. Crabtree said the building of this technology was the most difficult part of the process in establishing the steps of the plant and required substantial expertise.

The rare earth materials, once purified and separated, have increased in value to $40,000 to $60,000 per tonne, with some rare earths like turium worth $2 million a tonne.

In addition to their own value — and the value of producing specific rare earths further — Crabtree explained the minerals have heavy defence value, as 40 tonnes of defence-grade samarium could be produced a year.

That rare earth can be used in the creation of stealth multirole combat aircraft.

“That’s a lot of F-35s,” Crabtree said.

The third step takes two of the rare earths that have been separated — neodymium (ND) and praseodymium (PR) — to make the metals that go into the extremely strong magnets, created from the metal alloys and used in the final manufacturing for things like electric vehicles and wind turbines.

The two are fused together in an 1900s-looking smelter, from which someone in an aluminum-insulated suit will ladle the hot rare earths out. This will create the metal alloy that will be used for manufacturing.

About 300 tonnes of this alloy will be produced a year, worth about $200,000 per tonne.

The dollar figures show that the industry could culminate into one worth hundreds of millions in Saskatchewan.

“This is high-technical value,” Crabtree said, adding the facility will create many jobs within it as well as additional positions for engineering, construction and maintenance professionals.

The final stage, which is still in development, will look at how those metal alloys become magnets used in the manufacturing process.

Crabtree said rare earths like lithium, nickel, cobalt and battery minerals are critical in the 21st century, and posed the hypothetical question: Why would Saskatchewan sell these raw materials for just $10,000 per tonne when value could be grown to $200,000 per tonne?

“We have the capability and the expertise within the province to do that,” he said, saying it could be “a very significant part of the big four, five industries in the province.”

Crabtree added the plant will have paid for itself in simple terms within a span of five years, calling that “incredible” for an industrial project.

The CEO thinks the province has started on a path that is irreversible because interest in what is being produced in Saskatchewan has begun in companies located throughout the country as well as the U.S., Japan, Britain and Europe.

With the ultimate goal to build a global hub in Saskatchewan, Crabtree explained the SRC is open to business and hoping people will want to come here to learn and set up facilities.

“I think it could be transformative,” he said. “Only SRC in Saskatchewan is looking at that full vertical-integrated supply chain.”

Crabtree said the facility is on schedule and being constructed. With the separation unit already completed and most of the process figured out, he said it feels almost like the SRC has been working backwards to complete the project.

The plant is expected to be up and operational by fall of 2024. When it is complete, the facility is expected to be able to produce enough magnet metals to manufacture the equivalent of 300,000 magnet motors for electric vehicles.