Vital Metals will provide a minimum of 500 tonnes per annum of rare earth chemical concentrate from 2024 for Ucore's Strategic Metals Complex in Alaska, according to an MoU.

Ucore's SMC processes concentrates to produce rare earth elements. It is expected to produce up to 2000 tpa of individual rare earth oxides by the first half of 2024, with plans to process 5000 tpa by 2026.

Vital Metals will increase its production of concentrate to over 2500 tpa by 2026, from its Nechalacho mine in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Vital's Saskatoon Rare Earth Extraction Plant will produce the concentrate from 2022.

This would be the first rare earth separation processing currently taking place in North America, Ucore said in the statement. Construction of the SMC will be completed by the end of 2023, and is funded by regional development organization Southeast Conference.

Concentrate will be moved from Saskatoon to Prince Rupert BC via train, and will then be shipped to Ketchikan by boat.

Vital Metals began production at the Nechalacho rare earth project in 2021. The mine holds 94.7Mt at 1.46% REO of measured, indicated and inferred resources. The project's North T Zone holds 100,000 tonnes at 9% Light REO, and Vital Metals has begun drilling at the zone to increase the scale and mine life estimate.

Ucore's Alaska SMC is the first step of the Bokan-Dotson Ridge Rare Earth Element Project in Ketchikan, Alaska. A 2013 preliminary economic assessment on the project outlined a US$221 million mine with a mine life of 11 years, with a pre-tax net present value of US$577m at a 10% discount rate. The pre-tax Investor Rate of Return was estimated at 43%, with a pre-tax payback period of 2.3 years.