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Richard M. Klaus, AEC founderWhen my dad, Richard Klaus, founded this company 65 years ago, he had just invented the first automatic shutoff valve for gas station pumps. I was young at the time, but through the years learned how proud he was of his invention, and how satisfied he was to have provided a clever solution that made things easier for people. That's why he decided to create AEC Magnetics. The opportunity to provide products and solutions that saved time and work for people in automated manufacturing.
To this day, AEC Magnetics continues to build and supply magnetic solutions for automated manufacturing. Our solutions make automated manufacturing safer, simpler, easier, faster and more cost effective. We provide real value and take pride in doing so.
AEC articles of incorporation, 1961
Thank you for allowing the AEC Magnetics family the opportunity to provide magnetics solutions: electromagnets, power supplies, permanent magnets and custom solutions, for without you, we would not see this milestone. We are grateful to have the opportunity to serve you, and look forward to our mutual success.
Bill Klaus, president of AEC, and family
As I approach the 45-year mark with AEC Magnetics, I cannot emphasize more strongly how much my family, and my family of AEC customers, mean to me. Thank you. We never forget for whom we work, and that is you.
When my dad, Richard Klaus, founded this company 65 years ago, he had just invented the first automatic shutoff valve for gas station pumps. I was young at the time, but through the years learned how proud he was of his invention, and how satisfied he was to have provided a clever solution that made things easier for people. That's why he decided to create AEC Magnetics. The opportunity to provide products and solutions that saved time and work for people in automated manufacturing.
To this day, AEC Magnetics continues to build and supply magnetic solutions for automated manufacturing. Our solutioins make things safer, easier and faster, and provide real value to our customers.
Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to provide magnetics solutions: electromagnets, power supplies, permanent magnets and custom solutions, for without you, we would not see this milestone. We are grateful to have the opportunity to serve you, and look forward to our mutual success.
Approaching the 45-year mark with AEC Magnetics, I cannot emphasize more strongly how much my family, and my family of AEC customers, means to me. My employees and I never forget for whom we work, and that is you.
Bill Klaus, AEC Magnetics president
In a major win for U.S. critical mineral supply chains, Energy Fuels successfully produces high-purity terbium oxide in Utah from ore mined in Florida and Georgia, demonstrating the first U.S. mine to oxide capability to provide a secure western source of "heavy" rare earth oxides used in key commercial and defense technologies.
DENVER, March 25, 2026 /CNW/ - Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE: UUUU) (TSX: EFR), a leading U.S. producer of uranium, rare earths, and critical materials, today announced it has successfully produced its first kilogram (kg) of terbium (Tb) oxide at its White Mesa Mill in Utah. Using monazite ore sourced from the United States, the team achieved a purity of 99.9% Tb at pilot scale, which meets the specifications of global manufacturers of rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs). This achievement follows the Company's recent announcement that it had produced nearly 30 kg of 99.9% pure dysprosium (Dy) oxide production, another critical "heavy" rare earth oxide (REO) used in permanent magnets.
"This success proves we can process and produce high purity 'heavy' rare earth oxides economically and at scale in the U.S.," said Energy Fuels CEO Mark Chalmers. "North America will soon have a reliable and secure U.S. commercial source of these vital critical materials ensuring availability for high-performance magnet and defense technologies. This is just another example of the outstanding team the company has at both the Mill, and elsewhere, as the company continues to advance our strategy of becoming a world significant critical material producer."
Energy Fuels believes it is the first U.S. company in many decades to produce high-purity Tb oxide from a primary mineral feedstock and publicly disclose actual production volumes and purities that are sufficient for downstream metal/alloy validation. Like the Company's Dy oxide, its Tb oxide has been requested by multiple magnet manufacturers and OEMs around the world to begin product validation. Both Dy and Tb are subject to Chinese export controls highlighting the need for secure, western supply chains.
Adding Dy and Tb to permanent magnets makes a superior product for electric vehicles (EVs)/hybrid EVs, drones, robotics, and defense technologies by improving operational capabilities in high heat conditions and enabling smaller, lighter, and more powerful motors and actuators. The Mill expects to continue producing terbium oxide at an approximate rate of one kilogram per week in its existing pilot circuit, followed by pilot production of Sm, Eu, and Gd oxides.
The Company also plans to expand its heavy rare earth element production capability at its existing Mill circuits for the planned commercial-level recovery of Dy, Tb, Sm, Eu and Gd, with the ability to separate other heavy rare earth elements such as Y and Lu if market conditions warrant. Subject to the receipt of required regulatory approvals and sufficient quantities of monazite sand feedstock, the expanded commercial circuit is expected to be operational as early as 2027, with planned production recovery of up to approximately 35 tonnes of Dy, 12 tonnes of Tb per year and potentially other heavy rare earth elements, in addition to the 850 – 1,000 tonnes of NdPr, from processing up to approximately 10,000 tonnes of monazite per year through existing circuits.
The Company also plans to further expand its NdPr, Dy and Tb production capability and potentially other REE material production capability through the development of its stand-alone Phase 2 Circuit as early as 2029, subject to the receipt of regulatory approvals and sufficient feed materials. Upon commissioning, the Phase 2 Circuit is expected to increase the Mill's rare earth oxide production capacity to over 6,000 tpa of NdPr oxide, along with approximately 80 tpa of Tb and 288 tpa of Dy oxides. This would provide the capability to produce sufficient NdPr for up to approximately 7.0 million EVs/hybrid EVs per year.
Moving forward, the Company expects to continue purchasing monazite concentrates from U.S. companies and to import additional significant quantities from allied nations, including Energy Fuels' "shovel-ready" Donald Project in Australia, massive Vara Mada Project in Madagascar, and prospective Bahia Project in Brazil. The Company is also planning to install circuits at the Mill to enable the processing of mixed rare earth concentrates (MREC) for both "light" and "heavy" rare earth oxides, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals. MREC is a partially processed, intermediate rare earth material.
About Energy Fuels
Energy Fuels is a leading U.S. critical materials company specializing in uranium, rare earth elements, heavy mineral sands, vanadium, and medical isotopes. With several uranium projects in the western United States, Energy Fuels has been the top U.S. producer of natural uranium concentrate, supplying nuclear utilities. The Company owns the only fully licensed conventional uranium mill in the U.S.--the White Mesa Mill in Utah--where it also produces REE products and evaluates medical isotope recovery for emerging cancer therapies. Additionally, Energy Fuels is developing three heavy mineral sands projects: the Vara Mada Project in Madagascar, Bahia Project in Brazil, and Donald Project in Australia (through a joint venture with Astron Corporation Limited). Based in Lakewood, Colorado, its shares trade on the NYSE American ("UUUU") and TSX ("EFR"). For more details, visit http://www.energyfuels.com.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This news release contains certain "Forward Looking Information" and "Forward Looking Statements" within the meaning of applicable United States and Canadian securities legislation, which may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: any expectation that the Company can process and produce high purity 'heavy' rare earth oxides economically and at scale in the U.S.; any expectation that North America will soon have a reliable and secure U.S. commercial source of heavy rare earth elements; any expectation that the Company's Tb oxide will be successfully validated by magnet manufacturers and/or OEMs; any expectation that the Company's pilot scale production of heavy REEs will continue to be successful; any expectation of the purity of any of the REE or heavy REE oxides to be produced at the Mill; any expectation as to the timing of pilot and/or commercial scale production of REE or heavy REE oxides at the Mill; any expectation as to the Company's production capacity or expected timelines to production; any expectation as to estimated recoverable REE oxides; any expectation that the Company's development projects will be placed into production; and any expectation that the Company will be successful at recovering certain medical isotopes from existing uranium process streams needed for emerging Targeted Alpha Therapy cancer treatments. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects," "does not expect," "is expected," "is likely," "budgets," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates," "does not anticipate," or "believes," or variations of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "might" or "will be taken," "occur," "be achieved" or "have the potential to." All statements, other than statements of historical fact herein are considered to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements express or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include risks associated with: commodity prices and price fluctuations; engineering, construction, processing and mining difficulties, upsets and delays; permitting and licensing requirements and delays; changes to regulatory requirements; legal challenges; competition from other producers; government and political actions or inactions; market factors, including future demand for rare earth elements, titanium and zirconium; and the other factors described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is available for review on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml, on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and on the Company's website at www.energyfuels.com. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release, and Energy Fuels disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Energy Fuels assumes no obligation to update the information in this communication, except as otherwise required by law.
SOURCE Energy Fuels Inc
AEC Magnetics president is technically a magnetics tech in training. Though Bill has been at AEC for 44 years, he says he learns something new every day from the dozens of customers he talks to on the phone each day.
Eli, right, is a master of the vertical drill press, but like all AEC techs, he learns and perfroms all jobs. We only hire and keep techs that understand our absolute rule, it's got to be perfect. Eli gets it!
DJ, here on our left, is one of our newest techs. He and all of our techs learn person-to-person, on the job. They learn all day, every day. They help each other.
Brandon is shy. Not really, but we liked this photo.He's holding some magnets in production that are in the electrical assembly area. Like all AEC magnetics technicians, Brandon pays close attention to quality, as our customers accept nothing less.
AEC is happy to welcome Preet, above. Preet is in our office, but who knows, she willing to learn any and every thing we do. Thank you!
And the guy to the right, in the orange sweatshirt, is Jaylen. Don't let the tangled wires fool you. Jaylen has learned where they go and what they do, and why it is so important to our boss. By the way, our boss is YOU, our cherished CUSTOMER.
Why Electric Car Manufacturers Are In A Panic, And How China Holds The Key
"If we want electric-vehicle production to continue...in the United States, this has to be solved." These chilling words of a senior automotive executive, brought to us by Wall Street Journal reporter Sean McLain in his April 26, 2025, article, Dyspro-what? Why An Obscure Element Has The EV Industry In A Panic, summarize why President Trump has been investing money, time and attention to China's stranglehold on rare earth minerals. Beginning with President Clinton, and until President Trump, China has secured and maintained more than 90 percent of the world's rare earth minerals. Rare earths, or REEs, are a set of 17 elements essential to manufacturing the most critical products in the four most important U.S. industries: high-tech, pharmaceuticals, defense and energy. It's not just electric vehicles at stake for the United States and the West, but "green" technology depends on REEs. Consumers depend on REEs in hi-def, flat-screen televisions, smart phones and watches and laptops. American armed forces equipment and weaponry, such as satellite systems, night vision goggles, guided missiles, fighter jets and SONAR systems, are dependent on REEs. And of note, the REEs China now holds are critical in refining petrolium into gasoline and other sources of energy--energy needed to run cars, refrigerate food, heat homes in the summer and cool them in the winter. Again, it is China that mines, processes and produces 90 percent of the world's REEs. The United States--and the West--currently depend completely on China for these REEs.
How Exactly Did We Get To This Point? In short, the U.S. gave to China all its magnetics business, resources and technological know-how. Discovered in Sweden's Ytterby mine, near Stockholm, in 1787, this black mineral containing rare earth minerals received no attention to speak of for nearly 150 years. However, at the outset of World War II, scientists tried using REEs to purify uranium and discovered how to split the atom to make, and detonate, the atomic bomb. Thus, scientists saw the obvious importance of REEs. Shortly thereafter, the hunt was on for more of this material. An enormous mine was opened in REE-rich Southern California in the mid 1950s. This mine, later known as the Mountain Pass California Mine, became proficient at providing the material and extraction methods necessary to control this important natural resource. REEs achieved little commercial notice through the 1960s, except for the discovery of color television, though still controlled completely by the United States. It was then General Motors caught interest in REEs, secured Pentagon grants and discovered HREEs--Heavy Rare Earth Elements--which could be transformed into a new category of magnets called permanent magnets. Permanent magnets were soon in demand due to their superior power compared to first generation magnets. U.S. industries immediately began using them for speakers in stereos, earphones, televisions, computers, cars, to refine fuel and for better MRI imaging. The demand for these revolutionary magnets took attention and resources away from GM's core competency which was, of course, making cars, so they decided to spin off the magnetics business and creeate a separate magnetics division, Magnequench, to manufacture its magnets. Magnequench solidified its international control of the production and sale of permanent magnets until 1994.
From here, it gets ugly.
GM made a puzzling decision in 1995. It sold its lucrative magnetics subsidiary for only $70 million to a consortium headed by Archibald Cox, Jr., son of the Watergate prosecutor. Cox was not acting alone, but with two Chinese state-owned metals firms: San Huan New Material, and China National Nonferrous Metals Import and Export Company (CNNMIEC). The latter had been pestering GM to sell Magnequench since 1993, but had been unsuccessful until Cox appeared in the picture. The successful deal had the two Chinese firms controlling at least 62 percent majority of Magnequench shares. San Huan New Metals chairman was Mr. Zhang Hong, son-in-law of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who spearheaded the "Super 863 Program" to develop and acquire cutting-edge technologies for military applications. The other Chinese investor in Magnequench, the CNNMIEC representative, was another Deng Xiaoping son-in-law. The deal received little if any media attention at the time. The relatively small asking price for a company that provided a treasure trove of advanced technology designed for military and commercial uses going to a partially foreign owned company would seemingly create serious concerns and careful investigation by then President Clinton, but it did not.
In fact, the U.S. government permitted the Chinese to simply walk in and take over a significant U.S. high-tech firm. Through a 1988 federal law from the Reagan era, President Clinton had the power to block any financial transaction made between an American and a foreign-owned company if credible evidence the foreign interest exercising control might take action that threatened to impair national security. However, Clinton, or more precisely, CIFUS--the Committee on Foreign Investment In The United States--did not find any "credible evidence." Its only requirement for the deal to go through was that Magnequench's Chinese companies could not remove Magnequench's equipment or jobs from the United States for a period of ten years. The sale went through and, shortly after the Chinese took over, Magnequench's magnet production line was duplicated in China and the U.S. plant was closed, ostensibly to "see if it (the China operation) worked," according to one employee. The employee added, "I believe the Chinese entity wanted to shut down the plant from the beginning."
Now might be a good time to remember that those Magnequench magnets are used in the servo motors of guieded missiles and bombs--those used by the United States military. September 15, 2004, Magnequench closed the doors of its last U.S. plant, essentially handing over to the Chinese U.S. defense technology. And there's more: One of Magnequench's subsidiaries is GA Powders, which manufactures the fine granules used to make the miini-magnets used in the U.S. military's JDAM bombs. GA Powders was a U.S. Department of Energy project out of the Idaho National and Environmental Lab. In June, 2000, Magnequench up and moved GA Powders' production to Tianjin, China, where it was housed with high-tech computer equipment from a closed U.S. Magnequench plant. An Insight Magazine report at the time claimed these computers could be used to facilitate uranium enrichment for nuclear warheads. Uranium enrichment notwithstanding, the only domestic supplier of smart bomb magnets is now in China, which produces most all of the world's permanent magnets.
That's how we got here, and the impact on U.S. defense is undeniable. But what about EVs, and green technology in general? With China producing as much as 90 percent or more of the world's permanent magnets, and currently no U.S. supplier to speak of, what is the future of permanent magnet-dependent cars and energy? One investor, Jeff Lifton of Investor News, calls our attention to two things: The surge in EV mandates is over, causing the demand for EVs to drop dramatically (10 percent of the total U.S. light vehicle sales). And the big surge in domestic investment in rare earths production and research may constitute a too-strong supply side. "A sharp reduction in projected U.S. EV penetration implies a commensurate reduction in domestic demand foro rare earth permanent magnets and their constituent materials. The mining and refining sector will not be insulated from this recalibration, Projects justified on growth curves that no longer exist will face the discipline of markets."
And what about defense? The amount of permanent magnetic materials used by the U.S. military is classified, but Lifton points out the Department of War gives us an insight. "It has financed a magnet facility in South Carolina with capacity under 2,000 tons per year. That figure suggests the true defense requirement is modest--measured, not monumental." In sum, Mr. Lifton says the sharp reduction in U.S. EV production means a reduction in demand for rare earth permanent magnets. Mining and refining will not be immune from this reality.
"Wind turbine demand is also softening domestically. thus, the two pillars upon which American projections for rare earth magnet growth were constructed--EVs and wind--are both weakinging simultaneously. Yet we have announced plans to build roughly 40,000 tons per year of rare earth permanent magnet capacity in the United States."
For now,the world's supply of permanent magnetic materials appears to be on track to outpace demand for the next decade. China owns world's permanent magnetics business. Domestic research and production is underway. Absent artificial mandates, only the "lowest-cost, most technically competent and financially disciplined producers will survive."
Portions of this article are excerpted from Grand Theft Pentagon by Jeffrey St. Clair, as seen in Counterpunch Magazine 4-7-2006