NEWCASTLE (WNE) — Rare Element Resources has pushed back the launch of operation at its demonstration plant in Upton by a few months, but the company has also announced that it may receive hundreds of millions of dollars in debt financing from a federal agency to support expanding the Bear Lodge Project development. 

The launch of operations at the demonstration plant in Upton has been delayed several weeks, to mid-2025, according to a March 25 news release.

President Donald Trump on March 20 signed the executive order “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production,” directing the Export-Import Bank and other federal agencies to fast-track permitting, mobilize funding and create strategic stockpile offtake agreements for minerals that are crucial to the nation’s defense, technology and energy. 

Export-Import Bank of the United States, which is the federal government’s export credit agency, sent RER a nonbinding letter of interest for financing a portion up to $553 million to support the Bear Lodge Critical Rare Earth Project. 

“At this point, we are focused on the Upton demonstration plant and how those outcomes work into the full Bear Lodge project permitting, from mine to separated rare earth oxides,” Ken Mushinski, RER’s president and CEO, told the News Letter Journal. “Very exciting to see the Bear Lodge Project supply chain progress, especially with potential EXIM financial support, but we must do our work first on the plant.” 

The factory acceptance testing the demonstration plant is undergoing “has provided the opportunity to complete several process upgrades to the Demonstration Plant’s original design,” according to the release. 

Mushinski told the NLJ that the company is performing the changes and upgrades its technical experts recommended as it continues its final reviews of the demonstration plant and the technology.