American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) announced that it has entered into a bond purchase agreement with Hilltop Securities, Inc, for the sale of the West Virginia Economic Development Authority (WVEDA) preliminarily approved issuance of, and a volume cap allocation for $45 million of private activity, Solid Waste Disposal Facility Revenue Bonds, Series 2023, for the company's Wyoming County Coal (WCC) complex in West Virginia.
The socially-responsible supplier of raw materials to the new infrastructure and electrification marketplace said the $45 million Tax-Exempt Industrial Development Bonds will fund the expansion and technological improvements to the existing metallurgical carbon processing facility as well as the integration and construction of new rare earth processing capacity.
The bonds hold an interest rate of 9% and a maturity date of June 8, 2038, and the purchase agreement is due to close on June 8, 2023, subject to customary closing conditions and document delivery, according to the company.
“This funding enables us to efficiently modernize and transform the complex to be the first in the industry to process for both carbon and rare earth/critical battery mineral concentrates,” American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) chief financial officer Kirk Taylor said in a statement.
“These technological improvements will provide us the capabilities to improve the environmental standards in the region by reprocessing certain carbon-based waste sources for their critical and rare earth elements, while offsetting costs through the overall operations and infrastructure,” he added.
American Resources noted that its WCC complex is set to be the first commercial producer of rare earth (REE) and critical elements (CE) from carbon waste streams, with an initial focus on bringing two new underground mines into production that will produce an estimated 55,000 tons of carbon per month, with further expansion potential as the mines are developed.
It added that the REE and CE concentrates produced will be transported to the company's ReElement Technologies refining facility in Indiana for further separation and purification into forms needed for the manufacturing of modern goods and technologies.
American Resources Corp has a growing portfolio of assets in the Central Appalachian basin of eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia, where premium quality metallurgical carbon and rare earth mineral deposits are concentrated.
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