Rural Oklahoma aims to become a hub of critical minerals processing in the United States
A two-story warehouse nestled under Oklahoma's Wichita Mountains contains the only machine capable of refining Nickel, an important energy transition metal that is now dominated by China.
The facility, which is owned by Westwin Elements, hopes to make Oklahoma the epicenter of critical minerals processing in the United States, a field that was largely abandoned by the country decades ago.
To get there, the state must overcome several obstacles, including the lack of important mineral deposits, the weak education system, and its central location in the United States, far from the international shipping lanes. Oklahoma's move into mineral processing is an unexpected turn in the country’s effort to wean itself from Chinese rivals that have blocked exports. Donald Trump said that he wanted to increase the production of minerals in the United States. Oklahoma has the only nickel refinery in the United States, as well as its largest lithium refinery and two lithium-ion batteries recycling plants. It also has a rare earths magnetic facility and several electronic waste collections facilities.
They join an Umicore facility that produces germanium for solar panels. The first aluminum smelter in the country since 1980 is expected to begin construction next year on a site near an Arkansas River tributary.
Kevin Stitt (a Republican Governor) said: "I have strategically made a deliberate effort to go after these new industries which I believe will be critical." "There is money pouring into the critical minerals on the investment side. It might as well be in Oklahoma."
Investors and corporate executives believe that the lack of mineral resources, the location of the state, and the other negative factors are overshadowed by the positives. These include a workforce with extensive energy experience, financial incentives and rebates from the state, an inland port which has access to the Mississippi River Watershed, as well as accommodating regulators.
On social media, officials boast that Oklahoma is "a one phone call state," which they use to describe what they consider a simplified regulatory process.
This is why MLB Industrial in Australia, a startup company that provides lithium-ion battery technology to the locomotive industry expanded to Oklahoma this past year.
Nathan Leech said that other states wanted a well-established company, not a growing company. His family moved to Oklahoma because of this. "We plan to grow in Oklahoma." Washington has sought a nickel refinery in particular for years, but Chinese market dumping has scared off potential entrants. A source familiar with Trump's minerals policies said that the Chinese market dumping was scaring away any would-be participants. KaLeigh founded Westwin, naming it after her wish for the U.S. minerals dependency to be broken - "The West will Win." The company has built a demonstration plant 85 miles (137km) south of the capital of the state that can refine 200 tons of nickel per year and will expand production to 34,000 tons per annum by 2030. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence's demand projections show that if the Westwin facility is successful, it could refine 10% of America’s annual nickel requirements. The facility will use rock from Turkish and Indonesian mining sites, as well recycled U.S. battery. Oklahoma offers state tax rebates, among other incentives. Westwin, however, is lobbying Washington to not eliminate the federal production tax credit, which Republicans strongly oppose, along with other green energies subsidies implemented by former president Joe Biden.
Westwin and the Pentagon are in talks for a nickel deal, which would keep the metal within the United States for the manufacture of batteries for military drones.
SUSTAINABLE Power Nearly 220 miles (354) km northeast, Stardust Power is building a lithium-ion battery metal refinery that will produce 50,000 tons per year. This would be about a fifth what the U.S. needs by 2030. Sumitomo, a Japanese company, signed an agreement to purchase up to 50% of the facility's production in February. Stardust wants to build a plant that will filter lithium out of brines, something which has not yet been done on a commercial scale. Its capacity is similar to Tesla's refinery in Texas. The plant will be partly powered by renewable energy. Nearly half of the electricity in Texas is generated by windmills. Roshan Pujari is the CEO of Stardust. "That was an enormous draw," he said. Even though rival Albemarle has halted plans to build an enormous U.S. refining plant, citing low lithium prices, the company continues to move forward.
"During down cycles, the best time to develop is when prices are low. Why would we want them to be high if we had nothing to sell?" Pujari said. USA Rare Earth chose Oklahoma for its rare-earths magnet facility over Texas, according to CEO Josh Ballard. The company, which became public in the past year, cited what they felt was the personal support of Stitt and officials. The U.S. stopped producing magnets from rare earths in the 1990s. Ballard said the facility will open in early 2019 and produce at first 1,200 metric tonnes annually. This is enough magnets for more than 400,000 electric vehicles. This supply is highly sought-after in the United States, since China imposed export restrictions on rare Earths in April.
Ballard has received "a lot" of calls from potential customers since April. On Tuesday, the company signed a preliminary agreement with Moog to supply magnets for AI data centers.
We can do it quickly. "It's just about how we do it and if the government can be a catalyst." said Ballard. Ballard said.
Two Oklahoma battery processing plants - Green Li-ion Materials and Blue Whale Materials – will also break down lithium-ion cells into copper and other building block for new batteries. Natural Evolution in Tulsa is leading the charge to expand electronic waste recycle.
Green Li-ion has a recycling plant in Atoka, the hometown of Country Music star Reba McEntire. The company has been in talks with Glencore and Westwin to buy a recycled version known as MHP or mixed hydroxide precipate that can be used for nickel products.
Glencore has declined to comment.
The majority of recycled batteries in the United States are now exported to China as black mass, which is essentially shredded parts of battery. Green Li-ion of Singapore moved its U.S. operation to Oklahoma because the state has a long history in oil and gas extraction. This is what it considers complementary to black mass processing.
Kevin Hobbie is the senior vice president for operations at the company.
"SWINGING FOR FENCES"
Oklahoma's entry into the energy revolution hasn't all been smooth. Panasonic, a supplier to Tesla, chose Kansas in 2022 over Oklahoma after the Sunflower State offered it $1 billion in incentives. Canoo, an EV startup that received a state grant of $1 million and Stitt’s promise to purchase 1,000 vehicles from the company in January, filed for bankruptcy. Canoo, a company with several production plants in Oklahoma, attributed its bankruptcy to an uncertain demand for their cargo vans. Officials from the state say they're trying to recover these funds.
Stitt says he's not concerned about the bankruptcy. He said, "We will keep swinging at the fences."
Oklahoma's education system also has gotten negative press, in part because of a fight over low standards. This could make it hard to convince high-tech talent to move to Oklahoma and their families. U.S. News and World Report ranks Oklahoma's education system from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade 48th among the 50 U.S. States. Many schools are now operating on a 4-day work week in order to save money.
Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet that built a data center in Oklahoma in 2011, donated money to the local school system in part to attract teachers.
Oklahoma's Superintendent of Schools is an elected post over which Stitt does not have control. The governor was successful in pushing for a voucher system, which he claimed would attract more families.
Stitt explained, "If I create a competition and now a school in Oklahoma has to compete to get a student, that will make all boats soar and bring more talent to Oklahoma."
The governor stated that he was focused on helping minerals refiners grow in his state and is lobbying Trump for federal contractors to increase their percentage of minerals purchased in the US.
Long, founder of Westwin, also shares this desire. She spent her childhood herding cows, which she says inspired her to become interested in refinement and avoid mining.
She said, "I learned from the beef and meat industries that the packer seems to be the one who takes the least amount risk but makes the most money." When I saw mining I thought, "The miner is like the rancher, and the refiner, the packer." "I decided to become the packer." (Reporting and additional reporting by Nick Oxford, Editing by Veronica Brown & Claudia Parsons; Reporting by Ernest Scheyder)
(source: Reuters)
