Ucore Rare Metals Inc. provided an update on the commissioning process for its RapidSX Demonstration Plant (‘Demo Plant') for the separation of heavy and light rare earth elements. The Demo Plant is located within Ucore's 5,000 square foot RapidSXTM Commercialization and Demonstration Facility in Kingston, Ontario, and is run by its laboratory partner, Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. Commissioning of the Demo Plant is underway. Once commissioned, the Demo Plant is designed to demonstrate the techno-economic advantages, scale-up, and commercial durability of the RapidSXTM technology platform by processing tens of tonnes of North American-friendly sources of mixed rare earth chemical concentrates in a simulated production environment.

The planned output products are high-purity NdPr, praseodymium, neodymium, terbium, and dysprosium REEs, to be incorporated into the early stages of original equipment manufacturers' (‘OEM') qualification trials. Simultaneously, Ucore, its engineering partner, Mech-Chem Associates Inc. (‘Mech- Chem'), and KPM are developing the full-scale engineering for the Company's first Strategic Metals Complex. The SMC is a planned REE separation and rare earth oxide production plant slated to commence construction in the US State of Louisiana this year.

It is scheduled to initially process 2,000 tonnes of total rare earth oxides by the end of 2024, increasing to 5,000 tonnes in 2026.