Energy Fuels has broken ground on the commercial expansion of its White Mesa Mill in Utah. The investment totals approximately $104 million and is designed to give the facility the capacity to produce heavy rare earth oxides at scale, with the first processing circuits expected to come online by late 2027.
The White Mesa facility is already the only fully licensed conventional uranium mill operating in the United States. This expansion broadens its mandate: alongside uranium concentrate production, the site will become an integrated hub for the separation of heavy rare earth oxides — particularly dysprosium and terbium — with annual capacity of roughly 120 and 20 metric tons, respectively. Circuits for samarium and europium are slated for completion by end of 2028. The project builds on established progress: in August 2025, the company produced its first kilogram of high-purity dysprosium oxide at the same facility, and by December of that year, the oxide had been independently qualified for use in permanent magnets by a third-party organization.
The geopolitical backdrop makes clear why this investment is moving forward now. China controls the dominant share of the global heavy rare earth supply chain. In April 2025, Beijing imposed export restrictions on seven critical materials, including dysprosium, terbium, and samarium — restrictions that remain in place. For Western industries manufacturing electric vehicles, robotics, defense technologies, and wind turbines, dependence on that supply chain had become an acute and tangible problem. Processing capacity, not mineral availability, is the primary bottleneck.
The expansion is conceived as one link in an integrated mine-to-magnet supply chain. Oxides produced at White Mesa are expected to supply roughly 70% of the feedstock needed by ASM (Australian Strategic Materials) for its metallurgical operations in South Korea. That output will in turn feed VAC‘s permanent magnet manufacturing plant in Sumter, South Carolina, considered the largest facility of its kind in the United States. Funding for the expansion combines government support with the company’s own capital. Feedstock for the separation processes will come from the Donald Project in Australia and existing third-party supply agreements.
Energy Fuels occupies a position few companies outside China can claim: it is the only U.S. company to have qualified both light and heavy rare earths for permanent magnet applications — a milestone reached in late 2025 that paved the way for the current investment. If the expansion is completed on schedule by 2028, White Mesa could become the backbone of a critical supply chain that the Western world currently lacks. Whether it will be enough remains to be seen, but it represents a concrete and meaningful starting point.
