American Resources says that, with the addition of Hasler Ventures, it has licensed ligand assisted displacement (LAD) chromatography patents

American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) has announced that, with the addition of Hasler Ventures LLC, the company has licensed ligand assisted displacement (LAD) chromatography patents and knowhow to further expanded its capability in environmentally friendly separation and purification of rare earth elements.

The group pointed out that these exclusive patents and technologies, developed at Purdue University, are specific to the processing of separated and pure rare earth metals and critical elements from coal byproducts, recycled permanent magnets and lithium-ion batteries.

The agreement will enable American Rare Earth LLC (ARE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the corporation, to further develop and construct a much-needed environmentally safer domestic supply chain of critical materials.

READ: American Resources Corporation reiterates future commitment to ESG initiatives as it expands its operations and business

Rare earth elements (REEs) include the 15 elements in the lanthanide series plus scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y). They are essential ingredients for magnets, metal alloys, polishing powders, catalysts, ceramics, and phosphors, which are important for high-technology and clean energy applications. The global REE market is estimated at approximately $4 billion dollars and growing at 8% per year.

American Rare Earth’s agreements with Hasler Ventures comes in the form of two exclusive licenses: (1) technologies for the separation and purification of rare earth elements from coal, coal byproducts, coal waste and acid mine drainage, utilizing LAD chromatography, and (2) technologies for the extraction and purification of rare earth and critical elements from used or waste permanent magnets and batteries. Both technologies will be used by ARE to further develop its proprietary process chain for domestic commercialization and production of rare earth and critical elements.

In a statement, Mark Jensen, CEO of American Resources said, “Working with Purdue and Hasler Ventures to commercialize such an impressive suite of technologies that are of major importance to national security and the growth of the electrification marketplace is an honor for our company. Their teams have been nothing short of amazing, as they have fully embraced the need to rapidly scale to a commercial process to produce rare-earth and critical elements from available domestic sources.

“It is our shared belief that to compete in the world markets and to establish a robust domestic source of rare-earth metals, the United States cannot solely rely on the current costly and environmentally harming methods of solvent-based extraction. Linda Wang’s method represents this path.”

Dr Linda Wang, the Maxine Spencer Nichols Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, commented: ”We’re excited about partnering with American Rare Earth and American Resources on the implementation of our research. We look forward to working with their team on the design of a pilot production facility and an eventual full-scale production plant.”

Hasler Ventures was formed by Dan Hasler who retired from Purdue University in March 2020. At that time, Hasler Ventures optioned the technology. Hasler served Purdue as executive vice president for communications and previously served five years as president of Purdue Research Foundation where he became familiar with Wang’s work.

“Linda has dedicated more than 10 years of research to developing this process and her innovation is one of the most promising and environmentally safer methods to separate and purify rare-earth metals,” Hasler said. “There is a lot of interest in this technology because it could support the US domestic supply chain to safely purify this critical resource currently done almost exclusively in China which makes us dependent on them even though we have the raw materials available in the US.”

Purdue University President Mitch Daniels commented, “We’ve long been proud of Professor Wang and her research. If this comes to fruition, it could be a very vital new asset in protecting our country’s national security and manufacturing competitiveness.”

In connection with the exclusive patent licenses for its fields of use, American Resources has committed to a three-year sponsored research program with Purdue University and Dr Wang to further advance the technologies and critical processes. In addition, Dan Hasler will represent American Resources in subsequent sub-licensing and partnership opportunities and as an advisor to the company.

American Resources is a next-generation, environmentally and socially responsible supplier of high-quality raw materials to the new infrastructure market. The company is focused on the extraction and processing of metallurgical carbon, an essential ingredient used in steelmaking, critical and rare earth minerals for the electrification market, and reprocessed metal to be recycled.

It has a growing portfolio of operations located in the Central Appalachian basin of eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia where premium quality metallurgical carbon and rare earth mineral deposits are concentrated.

The Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the US. In fiscal year 2019, the office reported 136 deals finalized with 231 technologies signed, 380 disclosures received and 141 issued US patents.

Contact the author at [email protected]

Story by ProactiveInvestors