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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

ElementUS Plans Gramercy, Louisiana, Earth Elements Investment

03/08/2021
ElementUS, a joint venture of DADA and Enervoxa will make an $800 million capital investment to extract rare earth elements at the Noranda Alumina site in Gramercy, Louisiana. The carbon-neutral project would result in 200 new direct jobs.

ElementUS will locate near the Noranda Alumina refinery and build a separation and extraction plant with an annual capacity in excess of 1 million tons. The company is completing its front-end engineering and design for the project. Upon a final investment decision, construction could be completed within two years.

“We could not be more thrilled to be partnering with Enervoxa on this game-changing green venture in Louisiana,” DADA Holdings Chairman and CEO David D’Addario said. “Rare earth elements are in short supply and are vital to national defense, critical technologies and domestic industry in general. We, alongside Enervoxa, have the opportunity to extract and commercialize valuable rare earths 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.”

LED began formal project discussions with ElementUS in late 2020. Subject to a final investment decision, the State of Louisiana will offer a $6 million performance-based grant and the comprehensive workforce solutions of LED FastStart, the nation’s No. 1 state workforce training and talent attraction program. In addition, ElementUS is expected to utilize the state’s Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption programs.

“We are excited to be partnering with DADA Holdings and bringing our green technology to Louisiana and the Noranda Alumina site,” Enervoxa CEO Vandit Verma added. “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.”

The ElementUS project would be located within the 54-mile jurisdiction of the Port of South Louisiana.

“The Port of South Louisiana is delighted at the prospect of welcoming a new stakeholder into the port district,” said Executive Director Paul G. Aucoin of the Port of South Louisiana. “This new venture will be using byproducts from Noranda to extract rare earth minerals and other commodity metals, such as iron, titanium and additional alumina.”

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