American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) announced Tuesday that it has engaged technology veteran William E. Smith III to lead the design, build and operation phase of its rare earth and critical mineral purification facilities.
In a statement, the company said the facilities will utilize ligand assisted displacement (LAD) chromatography technology, which was recently licensed in partnership with Hasler Ventures and Purdue University.
Smith, president of CMID Inc, gained his experience during his 33-year career at Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) (FRA:LLY), overseeing technical support of their worldwide manufacturing facilities and responsible for worldwide planning, design, and construction of capital projects.
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During his tenure at Eli Lilly, he was intimately involved with the chromatography process, including the engineering, building out of their facilities and manufacturing operations. He also received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University and is the recipient of the school's Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award.
"I am extremely excited to work with the American Resources and American Rare Earth team and with the members of their process chain to implement their vision of domestic rare earth element (REE) purification,” Smith said.
“The chromatography technology developed by Purdue for this process is one that I am confident will be successful, given my years of experience in the field. Our goal is to demonstrate globally that we supply the electrification market with isolated pure rare earth elements from domestic sources."
The company said its REE purification facility will leverage LAD chromatography through its previously announced, exclusively licensed, and was developed at Purdue University. Its technology is being designed to handle a multitude of feedstocks, including recycled permanent magnets, batteries, as well as various coal waste and coal by-products, and is a significantly environmentally safer purification process compared to conventional solvent-based extraction methods.
The facility represents the final stage of American Resources’ REE process chain, defined as ‘Capture. Process. Purify," enabling the company to commercially produce rare earth oxides, lithium, and cobalt from domestic sources. The scalable facility will allow the company to be the first mover to purify and isolate the elements for sale directly to permanent magnet and battery manufacturers in the US.
"Bringing Bill in to oversee and rapidly implement the design, build and operations of our rare earth element purification facility is incredibly exciting,” said CEO Mark Jensen.
“Bill brings unparalled experience, an in-depth knowledge of the chromatography technology we have acquired from Purdue, and has a deep, long-standing relationship with the university. There is no doubt in my mind that he is the perfect person to oversee this exciting project, which is critically important to restoring our domestic rare earth supply chain."
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