American Rare Earths, Wyoming U team up on byproduct research at Halleck Creek

Staff Writer | January 22, 2026 | 3:45 pm Education Suppliers & Equipment USA Rare Earth

American Rare Earths Halleck Creek Wyoming

The Halleck Creek rare earths project in Wyoming. (Image courtesy of American Rare Earths.)

American Rare Earths (ASX: ARR), in partnership with the University of Wyoming, has been selected for a research award to examine and explore end-uses for the tailings and other byproducts resulting from rare earth elements production at the company’s Halleck Creek project.

The funding will be provided through the Accelerating Research Translation (ART) initiative funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), which aims to emphasize applied research innovations that have high potential for commercialization.

The AAR-UW partnership was selected for the Seed Translational Acceleration of Research (STAR) Project award, a core component of the NSF ART program specifically designed to advance innovations with validated commercial potential that can be completed in one year.

UW is part of the inaugural cohort of institutions to receive the NSF ART award, which provides $6.3 million in funding over four years.

“The intent is to fund projects on a milestone-driven basis with usable outcomes for the industry partner at the end of the project,” Parag Chitnis, UW’s vice president for research and economic development, said in a news release.

“These projects will serve as a basis for training graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, while simultaneously advancing tangible research that directly impacts development projects in Wyoming.”

Led by Tyler Brown, minerals program manager in SER’s Center for Economic Geology Research, the project team will work directly with Wyoming Rare to examine the tailings and byproducts resulting from rare earths extraction at Halleck Creek. They will also explore potential applications for those materials to determine potential technical viability for end-use applications, processing requirements and implications to overall project economics.

Last year, ARR reached a metallurgical milestone at the project when it upgraded ore from the tenure from 0.34% total rare earth oxides (TREO) to 3.72% TREO. The figure represented a ten-time increase in rare earth concentrate, and metallurgical tests showed that 93.5% of non-rare-earth material can be removed early, leaving only 6.5% of ore needing further refining, the company said.