Louisiana is rapidly becoming a key player in the US push to build a domestic supply chain for critical minerals and battery components, reports The Center Square. Backed by over $1 billion in federal and state support, eight facilities—processing rare earths, graphite, and electrolyte salts, are operational or under construction. The effort is part of the Trump administration’s strategy to reduce reliance on China and strengthen energy and defense manufacturing. Key projects include Ucore’s rare earths plant in Alexandria, Syrah’s graphite facility in Vidalia, and several battery material plants in southern Louisiana, marking a significant shift in America’s energy infrastructure. They write:
Louisiana is fast becoming a hub for processing critical minerals, rare earths and electrolyte salts used to produce lithium-ion batteries, with one plant operating successfully and seven more now under construction around the state.
The Trump administration and U.S. producers are racing to wean the country from dependence on imports from China.
Second-term Republican President Donald Trump on March 20 signed an executive order titled “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production” which is aimed at boosting domestic production of critical minerals and reducing reliance on foreign supplies. China has dominated the often dirty, capital-intensive business of processing critical minerals and rare earths for three decades. […]
At England Airpark in Alexandria, Ucore North America Rare Metals Inc. began construction in May on a plant that will separate rare earth metals from oxides shipped to the facility through the Port of New Orleans. Ucore received Department of Defense grants totaling $22.4 million to design and build the plant and was chosen for $15 million in tax exemptions by Louisiana Gov. Jon Bel Edwards in 2023. England Airpark, a repurposed Air Force base, is a duty-free zone.
Ucore’s Alexandria plant will process rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium to purities of 99.9% for use in the production of permanent magnets, which are crucial in manufacturing a variety of high-tech applications including electric vehicles, wind turbines, cellphones, computer hard drives, robotics and military. […]
Successful extraction of lithium from brines found underground across the state line in northeast Texas and south-central Arkansas indicate the mineral is present in large quantities in Louisiana, too.
In May, Louisiana State University Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering Associate Professor Ipsita Gupta received a $261,000 research grant funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office to study minerals extracted from brines in the state’s oil fields.
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