Colorado rare earth bid targets China’s estimated 94% hold on permanent magnets

By Scott Weiser | The Denver Gazette

Industrial capabilities preserved through decades of uranium market decline have given a Lakewood company a starting point in the national effort to establish rare-earth production outside China.

China dominates global production of the rare-earth permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and weapons systems. The International Energy Agency estimates that China produced 94% of the world’s sintered permanent magnets in 2024.

Lakewood-headquartered Energy Fuels Inc. is attempting to challenge that dominance using an unlikely foundation: the last operating conventional uranium mill in the United States.

Energy Fuels Inc. is building a rare-earth processing and magnet-manufacturing business around its White Mesa Mill in southeastern Utah, a facility that survived decades of uranium-industry decline while other conventional mills across the Colorado Plateau shut down.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE DENVER GAZETTE