The Governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards joined DADA Holdings Chairman and CEO David D’Addario and Enervoxa CEO Vandit Verma to publicise that the joint venture of DADA Holdings and Enervoxa ‘ElementUS’, will infuse an $800 million capital investment to extract rare earth elements at the Noranda Alumina site in Gramercy, Louisiana. This is subject to a final investment decision within the next year.
The Gramercy-based Noranda Alumina owned by DADA Holdings is joining hands with green technology firm Enervoxa to extract rare earth elements and other valuable minerals from alumina by-products. The Gramercy site has a 35 million dry-tonnes reserve of mineral-rich residual bauxite. The carbon-neutral project would result in 200 new direct jobs, with an average annual salary of more than $85,000, plus benefits. Louisiana Economic Development estimates an additional 590 new indirect jobs would result, for a total of nearly 800 new jobs in Louisiana’s Southeast Region and surrounding areas.
Governor Edwards said: “Since we launched our Climate Initiatives Task Force in 2020, we continue to emphasize the extraordinary natural resources Louisiana possesses in our existing petrochemical and energy sector.”
“ElementUS represents another example of how we can achieve a lower-carbon future by adapting the resources that already exist in Louisiana, applying new technology and leveraging our talented industrial workforce.”
D’Addario said: “We could not be more thrilled to be partnering with Enervoxa on this game-changing green venture in Louisiana.”
“Rare earth elements are in short supply and are vital to national defence, critical technologies and domestic industry in general. We, alongside Enervoxa, have the opportunity to extract and commercialize valuable rare earth and other minerals while at the same time further reducing the environmental footprint at our alumina refining business and the U.S. dependence on China for these limited and technologically strategic minerals.”
Verma added “We are excited to be partnering with DADA Holdings and bringing our green technology to Louisiana and the Noranda Alumina site. We have a proud history of developing and implementing green technology projects, and are confident that the partnership of ElementUS, Noranda Alumina and the great state of Louisiana will be a long and mutually beneficial one.”
ElementUS will locate near the Noranda Alumina refinery and build a separation and extraction plant with an annual capacity of over 1 million tonnes. The residual bauxite has been confirmed to contain high concentrations of 10 of the 17 rare earth elements targeted by the U.S. Defence Logistics Agency, along with titanium, iron and other minerals and metals valuable to U.S. industry and consumer demand. Separation and extraction of the minerals will occur primarily through proprietary residual bauxite processing technology developed by Toronto-based Enervoxa.
Besides the defence applications, rare earth elements deliver key performance attributes for a wide range of industrial and consumer products, such as batteries, magnets, refining catalysts, aircraft engines, electric vehicles, smartphones, digital cameras, computers, flat-screen TVs, lighting and medical scanning equipment. The ElementUS project would be located within the 54-mile jurisdiction of the Port of South Louisiana, the largest port by tonnage in the Western Hemisphere.
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