Utah’s only operating uranium mill begins producing terbium, a key rare earth for EVs and defense

The only operating uranium mill in the United States has begun producing a rare metal crucial to electric vehicles, wind turbines and weapons systems, in what its owner calls a first for the country in decades — and a turning point in a long-running fight with a nearby Ute community.

Energy Fuels Inc. said March 25 that it has produced its first kilogram-scale batch of terbium oxide at its White Mesa Mill in southeastern Utah. The company described the material as 99.9% pure and called the project the “first U.S. primary production of critical ‘heavy’ rare earth material in decades.”

The terbium was produced at pilot scale from monazite ore mined in Florida and Georgia, then shipped to White Mesa, where engineers crack the sand, separate uranium and other metals, and extract rare earth elements. Energy Fuels says that makes White Mesa the first U.S. site in many years to take heavy rare earths from “mine to oxide” onshore.

The announcement marks a step in Washington’s effort to reduce dependence on China for rare earths — a group of 17 elements that underpin modern electronics and clean energy — even as it deepens environmental and political tensions around the mill, which sits a few miles north of the White Mesa Ute community.

A small batch with big ambitions

In its March 25 statement, Colorado-based Energy Fuels said it had produced “its first kilogram of terbium (Tb) oxide” at the mill and is now running its pilot circuit at roughly one kilogram a week. The company said the material meets the 99.9% purity standard typically required by magnet manufacturers and defense suppliers.

The terbium milestone follows the company’s earlier production of nearly 30 kilograms of dysprosium oxide, another heavy rare earth used alongside terbium in high-performance permanent magnets.

Energy Fuels Chief Executive Mark Chalmers said the new product positions the company “at the forefront of rebuilding a fully integrated rare earth supply chain in the United States,” particularly for materials used in “high-performance magnet and defense technologies.”

The company also laid out aggressive expansion plans. By about 2027, if it secures enough feedstock and regulatory approvals, Energy Fuels says White Mesa could produce up to 12 metric tons of terbium oxide and 35 tons of dysprosium oxide per year, along with 850 to 1,000 tons of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, a key ingredient in most permanent magnets.

A second-phase, stand-alone rare earth circuit targeted around 2029 could lift annual output to more than 6,000 tons of NdPr oxide, about 80 tons of terbium and 288 tons of dysprosium, the company said. It argues that would be enough NdPr to supply magnets for about 7 million hybrid and electric vehicles a year.

Those figures are projections. In securities filings and in the March 25 news release, Energy Fuels cautioned that its plans depend on future permitting decisions, access to affordable monazite supplies, commodity prices and demand from magnet makers and other customers.

Why terbium matters

Terbium is a heavy rare earth element used in small quantities but with outsized importance.

Most modern electric vehicles rely on neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets in their traction motors. Adding terbium and dysprosium allows those magnets to keep their strength at high temperatures, improving efficiency and reliability under the hood. Similar magnets power generators in some wind turbines and are used in industrial robotics, consumer electronics and many defense systems.

Terbium is also a component of Terfenol-D, a magnetostrictive alloy used in sonar, precision actuators and vibration control devices.

Global demand for terbium is expected to grow as automakers shift to electric powertrains and governments push to expand wind and other renewable energy. At the same time, supplies are concentrated in a handful of deposits, and commercial separation is technically challenging and costly.

China’s grip on heavy rare earths

For decades, China has dominated the rare earth industry, from mining to processing to magnet manufacturing. Analysts estimate that Chinese producers account for about 70% of global rare earth mine output, more than 90% of refining capacity and roughly the same share of permanent magnet production.

For heavy rare earths such as terbium and dysprosium, China’s dominance is even more pronounced. Industry studies put its share of heavy rare earth processing at close to 99%, drawing on ore mined domestically and in neighboring Myanmar, where extraction has been linked to armed conflict and environmental damage.

In 2025, Beijing moved to tighten control over that leverage. New export licensing rules placed several heavy rare earth compounds, including terbium oxide and dysprosium oxide, under strict case-by-case review. Additional regulations adopted later that year introduced what lawyers dubbed a “50% rule,” signaling that applications from entities tied to countries seen as restricting Chinese firms could face routine denials.

Chinese officials cast the measures as routine national security and resource protection steps. In practice, manufacturers in Japan, the United States and Europe reported delays and uncertainty in securing critical magnet materials. The episode reinforced worries in Washington and allied capitals that rare earth exports could be used as a tool in future trade or security disputes.

Against that backdrop, even modest non-Chinese production has taken on outsized symbolic and strategic weight.

A uranium mill turns to “critical minerals”

White Mesa Mill, located in San Juan County just south of Blanding, Utah, opened in 1980 to process uranium and vanadium ore from the Colorado Plateau. It is licensed by the state and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to handle conventional uranium ores and certain “alternate feeds” — radioactive and metal-bearing waste from other industrial and cleanup sites.

As U.S. uranium production waned, Energy Fuels increasingly used the mill to process such alternate feeds, a practice that sharply divided local opinion. Supporters in Blanding and surrounding communities have pointed to jobs, tax revenue and the mill’s role in national energy and defense supply chains. Opponents, including tribal members and environmental groups, argue the site has effectively become a regional waste facility.

In 2020, Energy Fuels began a new chapter, announcing that it had produced a mixed rare earth carbonate from monazite sands at White Mesa. The company initially shipped that carbonate to a plant in Europe for further separation. In 2024, it said it had begun commercial production of separated NdPr oxide on site, reviving capabilities that had largely disappeared from the United States.

The March terbium announcement builds on that progression. Energy Fuels says it now can produce a suite of rare earth oxides — starting with NdPr and extending into heavier elements such as dysprosium and terbium — alongside uranium and vanadium.

The company portrays the mill as a “critical minerals hub,” arguing that its existing licenses and experience with radioactive materials give it an edge in handling monazite, which contains uranium and thorium as well as rare earths.

A long-running dispute with the White Mesa Utes

For the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa community, a small settlement about three miles south and generally down-gradient of the mill, the rare earth pivot has not resolved old concerns.

Tribal members and environmental organizations have for years raised alarms about the potential for groundwater contamination from the mill’s waste ponds and tailings cells, as well as about dust and radon emissions and the risk of spills during ore and waste transport. They also point to cultural and archaeological sites they say were disturbed when the mill was built and expanded.

In recent years, tribal residents have organized annual “spiritual walks” to the mill, calling for its closure and opposing new permits to accept additional feedstocks. A 2022 report prepared for the tribe argued that using the mill to process foreign waste and new mineral streams “perpetuates a pattern of environmental burdens being placed on Indigenous communities.”

Energy Fuels and Utah regulators say the facility operates safely and within regulatory limits. State and federal agencies have conducted periodic inspections and environmental monitoring around the site. The company has emphasized investments in new liners and monitoring wells and has said that decades of sampling have not shown contamination reaching drinking water supplies.

Those assurances have not convinced many in White Mesa. Tribal leaders have passed resolutions objecting to license renewals and expansions, and allied groups have challenged permits in state proceedings. The arrival of new rare earth circuits — and the national attention that comes with them — has sharpened fears that the mill will operate for many more decades.

How much difference can one mill make?

Energy Fuels’ projected terbium and dysprosium output would still represent a small share of global supply. Even at full Phase 2 capacity, the company’s planned 80 tons of terbium oxide a year would likely amount to only a fraction of Chinese production.

Analysts say the significance lies less in displacing China than in giving magnet makers and defense contractors alternative sources and bargaining power. A qualified domestic supplier, even at limited volumes, could help insulate critical U.S. industries from sudden export restrictions or political shocks.

At the same time, Energy Fuels faces its own uncertainties. Its rare earth business depends on a steady flow of monazite from mines in the southeastern United States and from heavy mineral sands projects in Australia, Madagascar and Brazil, each subject to its own permitting and community issues. The company has said some heavy rare earth oxides from White Mesa have passed initial qualification tests with at least one magnet producer, but it has not announced long-term offtake contracts for terbium or dysprosium.

The economics of competing with Chinese refiners, who benefit from decades of experience and sunk infrastructure, is another open question. Energy Fuels has signaled that U.S. tax credits and possible Defense Department support for critical minerals could be important to its plans.

For now, the first kilograms of terbium oxide from White Mesa are more a symbol than a market force — tangible evidence that the United States can once again separate some of the most sought-after rare earths at home, and a reminder that the race to secure the materials of the energy transition is unfolding in specific places, with specific communities bearing the risks.