06:57 AM EDT, 06/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Energy Fuels ( UUUU ) , a U.S. producer of uranium, rare earth elements and vanadium, overnight Monday said it signed binding agreements with Astron Corp. Ltd. to create a joint venture to develop and operate the Donald Rare Earth and Mineral Sands Project in Australia.

The project, which is located in the Wimmera region of the state of Victoria, is at an advanced-stage with the potential from 2026 to supply annually about 7,000 to 14,000 tonnes of monazite sand in a rare earth element concentrate to Energy Fuels' ( UUUU ) White Mesa Mill in Utah for processing into separated REE oxides.

Under the joint venture, Energy Fuels ( UUUU ) has the right to invest A$183 million ($166.3 million) and issue US$17.5 million in Energy Fuels ( UUUU ) shares to acquire up to a 49% interest in the project. Energy Fuels ( UUUU ) expects to issue US$3.5 million in shares in 2024 and to invest about US$10.6 million in 2024 from its existing working capital, before making a final investment decision to proceed with the development of the first phase of the project.

A positive final investment decision would require the approval of both companies and would generally require commitments for satisfactory offtake and/or sales agreements for the REE oxides expected to be produced from REEC at the Mill. It would also require commitments for non-recourse and/or government-backed debt financing for the project.

The REEC production of about 7,000 to 8,000 tonnes per year from the first phase of the Donald Project would be processed at the Mill's recently constructed REE oxide separation circuit, which is expected to be fully commissioned by the end of the second quarter and can process up to 10,000 tonnes of monazite sand per year into up to 1,000 tonnes of NdPr oxide per year, along with a heavy mixed REE carbonate, without the need for any further capital expenditures at the Mill.

During 2024 and 2025, the company plans to continue to design, permit, and construct an expansion of REE oxide production capacity at the Mill to 40,000 to 60,000 tonnes of monazite per year.

This is expected to be completed in 2027 and would have the capacity to process the second phase of monazite production from the Donald Project of 13,000 to 14,000 tonnes of REEC per year, which could be available as early as 2029/2030, as well as planned monazite production from the company's Bahia Project in Brazil and the company's planned acquisition of the Toliara Project in Madagascar.

Further, the company expects to produce about 150,000 to 500,000 pounds of uranium oxide in 2024 from its US mines and alternate feed materials ramping up to mining at a run-rate of about 1.1 million to 1.4 million pounds of U3O8 per year later this year from three of its existing mines.

Additionally, the company plans to increase mining to the rate of about 2 million pounds of U3O8 per year by 2025 and up to 5 million pounds per year in the coming years if market conditions continue to be positive, as expected.

The company's stock, which slipped 0.7% in premarket U.S. trading on Tuesday, fell 1.7% in Canada on Monday.