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Pat Ryan explains how Ucore has shifted from technology development to commercialization, with a first production machine planned for Louisiana in 2027. He also outlines the feedstocks being tested and the company's focus on delivering specified rare earth products to customers.
This morning I have the real pleasure of catching up with Pat Ryan, the CEO of Ucore.And I just want to as a little preamble point out, I've been following Ucore for 10 years or more.And I think more has happened the last year than in the previous 10 all put together.So, I'll turn over to you, Pat.What What is the latest news?You look to be advancing very rapidly right now.
Yeah, absolutely, Jack.And And appreciate Yeah, you have been following us for for 10 years, haven't you?We way back in the days of the the bulk and resource which had a heavy rare tilt that the US government was quite interested in and we still have that resource, but most recently, as you know, it's ourpursuit to um develop those uh rare earth oxides that uh people actually want to buy at specified levels so they can move to metals and then alloys and magnets and and actually uh very well written by yourself recently,from the magnet where does it go?Goes to the OEM.And who's the OEM?Who's doing whatever.So, our our role at Ucore uh in the last 6 9 months has been commercialization.We're all done with the technology development uh that was done under the watch of the Department of Energy, as you know.
And our technology development uh from rapid SX all the way through the commercial readiness is where we are.And we can now see that commercial window ahead of us.And we're moving uh quickly to get our first what we call a machine A, which the first production commercial machine in Louisiana installed uh in H1 of '27.And so, that that's been the pursuit of the team.We've got uh different feedstocks we're working with.Uh you're aware in in a in a recent um news article, we have a release with Sumitomo.They brought us a couple of feedstocks in the Far East that we're working through.We have one in uh America that we're working through as well.And uh and all of those make their way to Louisiana.So, the team's very focused on let's get that commercialization done.Let's get specified product that people are going to buy and move down through the supply stream from there.
The discussion turns to why few companies have entered rare earth separation, emphasizing the technical difficulty of isolating individual oxides. Ryan describes Ucore's chemistry-focused approach, its high-purity outputs, and the importance of identifying the right downstream customers.
You know, I I've done an analysis of the North American market and I don't see any other company being formed or or trying to go into operation as a provider of separation services to rare earths.So, I think people have to understand Ucore is it.Okay?Now, I I don't think you would you encourage competition, but the fact is you're you're the only one that has done this.Can you just tell me why you think no one else has entered this arena?
Yeah yeah, sure.And and I'm not sure if it's a phrase you coined a while ago, Jack, but uh you know, it's not about the rocks, it's about the chemistry.And and and that chemistry of separating out those individual rare earth oxides is the really difficult part in the supply chain.You know, I don't want to understate how difficult it is, but but it's difficult.You know, we we developed our technology over a 4-year period.And and now we're ready.Now we've developed you know, an NDP at 99.5% dysprosium at 99.9%.We've sent them to end-use customers and and you know, we've challenged the end-use customers where's it going from there?Meaning if you're a magnet maker, what does your customer look like beyond you?Is it a motor manufacturer, a drivetrain manufacturer?Like continuing to to force our way down in that direction.So, yeah, we're we're we're unique in that we're we're very focused on that one um issue, which is those critical seeds of technology as the Japanese call it.
And and there are a lot of stories out there in the US US industry, the Western industry right now, about mine to magnet.And and it's got a lot of um glitz and glory and glamour and people read and go, "Wow, mine to magnet."But at the end of the day, you've got to technically technically uh get all those pieces of the nodes working and we're saying, "Let's do a really damn good job at that middle market that's needed."And and so that's where we've been focused.And that again, 4 years of technology development, now we're moving to commercialization and we're really questioning the downstream from us to make sure we make the right choices.We've only got so much material to go around out of our um uh machine A and then production line one and production line two and production line three.So, you know, getting very specific about um trying to deliver that product then to the end user, which is not necessarily the magnet maker, but the one that uses the magnet beyond that.
The host praises the long development timeline and asks about recent U.S. government funding for samarium and gadolinium. Ryan explains their defense relevance, the pressure from depleted wartime stockpiles, and confirms that Ucore already has feedstock under test.
No, um I hate to use this term, but Ucore is a paradigm case of of something that I've tried to emphasize to to my readers.The development of technology is not done overnight.Even if you buy were to buy it off the shelf, it it takes a long time to deploy.You your company has acquired and developed an outstanding separation technology and it's been many years of work with with extremely sophisticated researchers and locations.And so, I I want to, you know, absolutely salute you for for carrying through because it's you and and and your principal investor partners who put up your who've risked our own capital to get this done.Even though now, of course, you're you're getting uh quite nice uh tranches of money from from government organizations.I do want to ask you a specific question.Uh I note that you have gotten some funds recently from I believe the American government uh produce samarium and gadolinium high purity oxides.
Can you tell us why these two particular rare earths have been singled out?
Yeah, absolutely.And you're right.We had an announcement recently where the government stepped in and said, "Hey, with that machine you're making, that very first machine which they've done some funding for, we like to add another 4.6 million US on top of thatto make sure that you're getting enough stages to get the samarium and gadolinium."And the reason samarium and gadolinium are so crucial is that the samarium cobalt magnets that are used in defense for their very high temperature maintaining magnetization, it's a defense application primarily.You know, a little bit in in medical and whatnot, but it's defense.And of course we have a you know, a Middle Eastern war going on right now.The stockpiles of materials that have gone into that war, whether it's for drones or guiding systems for missiles or or whatever, they're you know, they're being depleted and you need to replenish those critical oxides, samarium and gadolinium, be
able to make those magnets, be able to make the defense mechanisms work and and continue to move that effort forward.So, and then that control of samarium and gadolinium is very tightly held by China right now.So, a real you know, political juggernaut.But that that's why the government stepped up and said, "Let's get behind the samarium and gadolinium.Let's take your first machine which we're funding.Let's add a little bit more to it to make sure we can get to samarium and gadolinium and that's what that's all about."
Do have you acquired the feedstock for for that?
We do have feedstock.And we actually have feedstock in Kingston right now being tested.And we've got to actually currently 700 kg that we're working through with flow sheets.And yes, we do have feedstock.I can't say a whole lot more other than yes, we have feedstock.
The conversation compares Ucore's smaller funding and progress to larger failed solvent extraction efforts. Ryan argues that scalable, modular rapid SX is a better fit for North America and explains why the government favors Ucore's boutique, lower-capital model.
Well, Uh, I can see it.So, uh what's interesting to me is and I think the public needs to understand the Department of Defense as it was then allocated a very large amount of money to build a legacy solvent extraction system in Texas.Then they allocated even more money, but that didn't happen.Okay?And and it's interesting to me because they have allocated a much smaller fraction of that money to Ucore and it looks to me like you're getting the job done that the major corporation either didn't want to do orcouldn't do.So, again you're at you're the only game in town.Obviously, the Department of War and whatever believes whatever other departments believe that you can produce samarium and gadolinium.Gadolinium samarium is particularly important, okay?Uh, do you can you tell us cuz I really don't know why the emphasis on gadolinium.
I only know it for medical uses.It's using they use it for contrasting in MRI.Yeah, are there military uses if that you're aware of?I'm I'm not.
Absolutely, in the military use samarium is the primary usage, but gadolinium is sprinkled in at a smaller amount.And so certainly more samarium than gadolinium, but gadolinium is is very much needed by the defense side of things.And you know, that's that's really where it fits and you know, to your earlier comment too about uh, you know, large amounts of money being funded for separation plants that never quite get off the ground.And and that's the difference between the the massive solvent extraction plants that China has and and trying to replicate those in North America we believe is not the solution forward.The solution forward is you've got to be uh scalable, modular, nimble, boutique-like in your approach and that's why we really have done a great job with rapid SX.It's scalable, it's modular, you can build it in pieces and the US government has looked at us you know for the last two three years and said wow, so you can take a number of stages, you can add
them, you can build them on your plant, you can put samarium gadolinium in place.Let's do that.That makes a lot of sense and that's what we love about our rapid SX boutique approach.Stop, start, multiple feedstocks, um you know, multiple customers at the end of the day with different specs, different product and and not having to produce massive amounts of products at at huge amounts of capital but much less capital,very good OPEX and and that's why the US government likes what we're doing.
The final section covers where Ucore builds its equipment, how its machine architecture works, and why domestic sourcing matters amid Chinese export restrictions. Ryan closes by describing the engineering mindset behind the plant and the need to focus on customer requirements and delivery timing.
Well, you know, you're one of the very few seasoned and successful mass manufacturing businessmen in this space.And and uh I enjoy very much listening to economic discussions cuz I I'm tired of discussions of there's these rocks in some mountain have something and therefore something's of value which which are nonsense.I I do have a question.Are you are building I'm calling your your separation units columns cuz I don't have another word.Okay, you're calling them machines, I understand that.Are you building those machines in the United States or Canada?
Uh in the United States.Well, yeah, we're we we did the machines that we have and we call them a machine.It's a column based technology.
Yeah.
But a machine A for example now has moved to 118 stages and that means there'll be um contactor in a phase separator which is equivalent to a mixer and settler in a solvent extraction world but it's a columnbased tech.And and we've done recently factory acceptance testing which means we we've tested all the different diameters of columns to make sure that they work equivalent to what our commercial demo plant is worked at.We've tested the phase separator, which is the settler, and we we've got a vertical you know, proprietary phase separator.We've tested different column sizes, and we put the two together.And so, when it comes to the parts that actually make the system, we're talking pipes, i.e.columns, pumps, PLCs, that type of thing.And and that's all available in the US market.And and building and assembling right in Louisiana is what we're doing.
We've ordered uh long lead time equipment already to come with to the plant from reactors to switch gear to chillers to you name it.And now the pipes and pumps and columns, the things that go into making that machinery are on their way as well.
The The reason I asked the question is because I think people are overlooking something.The The recent The current dust-up with China uh it includes The one thing that stands out to me more than anything else, the fact that China now absolutely prohibits the export of equipment involved in any aspect of theof the of the rare earth manufacturing space.And I have asked many, many uh companies, well, uh where are you going to get your equipment?They all went They went, well, we can make it in the states or Japan or or Greenland or something like that.And I say, well, yeah, but you can't just go to a manufacturing company and say, hey, something you've never done before, could you Could you turn one out for me like next week?Okay.These people don't seem to understand engineering studies, the selection of of raw materials, testing of the of the system the first, second, and third time when it doesn't work.
And so, what's intriguing to me is that not only if you've got no competition as an independent separator, I don't think you have any competition as as an equipment uh Uh and you know, supplier to yourselves because youcan't get anything now in the way of SX equipment for rare earths from China.That That you can't even get mining equipment from China.And the public doesn't seem to understand how much of this equipment has been bought from China in the last 25 years.What What I'm saying is China's the the preferred source.So, you not depending on them is another plus for you for in my opinion.Do you have a comment on that?
You know, absolutely.In fact, the recent meetings were held in Washington, you know, with Xi Jinping and and Trump.The those restrictions on equipment, they didn't go away.They're still there.And in fact, it's not just the restrictions on equipment, it's the restriction on anyone that might have a technological thought, an edge, or whatever.Those people are banned as well.And and so yeah, no, our ability to go to Home Depot, you know, to commercial pump stores, you know, that that type of thing.Get PLCs from good PLC manufacturers in the US market.It's all very smart engineering that takes a known technology and say, "Let's take this chemistry.Let's re-engineer Let's re-engineer the equipment.Let's make the equipment more capital friendly.Let's make the OPEX good.Let's Let's create stop and start scalable, modular, workable environments."And And that's the way you enter the western market.
And And so, my background, yeah, it's it's automotive processing plants and we've been super successful with developing work cell mentality.And And again, addressing exactly what the customer wants.Not Not what the markets want, but what the customer wants.And if if if the customer wants it and they've got to schedule a time, you better make sure your equipment, your technology, your plans, all that are just laser focused on exactly what do they want, when do theywant it, and make sure your plant with its equipment can deliver.So, yes, absolutely.
Thank you, Matt.Thank you for the update and and I look forward to hearing from you when the first production will occur in Louisiana.
Well, I will bring you in for a visit.
Thank you.I look forward to it in the spring or summer, please.
Okay.Absolutely.