Aclara Resources inaugurates rare earth separation pilot plant

Aclara Resources (ARAAF) announced the inauguration of its rare earth separation pilot plant located at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. The facility represents a major milestone in Aclara’s strategy to establish a vertically integrated rare earth supply chain in the Western Hemisphere and support the development of its planned industrial-scale separation facility in Louisiana. The pilot plant has been designed to validate and optimize Aclara’s proprietary rare earth separation technology using high-purity mixed rare earth carbonates, with high concentration of heavy rare earths, that will be produced from the Company’s ionic clay deposits in Brazil and Chile. The facility will also generate operational data to support the engineering and ramp-up of Aclara’s future industrial-scale plant in the U.S.