Canadian mining company Aclara Resources, owner of a rare earth project in Brazil, signed a research and development agreement with a national laboratory of the United States Department of Energy to apply artificial intelligence in the process of separating heavy rare earths.
The announcement was made by the company last Thursday (15) in a fact relevant to the market.
The development will be conducted at Argonne National Laboratory, one of the US government’s main research centers.
The objective is to improve process efficiency and reduce uncertainties in industrial operations.
In practice, the technology creates a virtual representation of the industrial process, built from real operational data, mathematical models and artificial intelligence algorithms.
This tool allows you to simulate plant behavior, test scenarios and anticipate failures before changes are applied to the physical operation, reducing technical risks and costs.
In the critical minerals sector, such as rare earths, this type of approach is used to deal with complex chemical processes, sensitive to variations in ore composition.
The application of AI helps increase recovery rates, improve separation efficiency, and accelerate the transition from pilot plants to industrial scale.
The Canadian company owns the Carina Project, located in Nova Roma (GO).
The company’s project in Brazil already has financing from the American government, through the US International Development Finance Corporation, the United States development agency responsible for supporting strategic investments in developing countries.
The venture is rich in rare earths and follows the ionic adsorption clays model, in which the elements are not trapped in hard rocks, but adsorbed in clay, a type of deposit that is rare outside of China.
This type of enterprise presents lower environmental risk and lower operational costs precisely because of the geological model adopted.
It allows extraction through simpler and less intensive processes, without the need for deep drilling, blasting or heavy crushing.
In April 2025, Aclara opened a heavy rare earths pilot plant in Aparecida de Goiânia.
The main products of this unit are dysprosium and terbium, which, together with other light and heavy rare earths, are concentrated in the form of rare earth carbonate.
The carbonate that will be produced in Brazil is an intermediate stage in the chain.
This material will go to the company’s separation plant in the United States, where it will undergo chemical refining until it is transformed into individual rare earth oxides, which is the final commercial product sold to the market.
These oxides are inputs used in the manufacture of metallic alloys and permanent magnets, used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, electronic equipment and defense systems.
According to the company, the Carina Project is scheduled to begin operations in 2028, with an estimated useful life of 18 years.
In addition to the project in Brazil, Aclara also has assets in Chile
