GreenMet plans $150M rare earth processing hub in West Virginia

GreenMet, a Washington, DC-based firm acting as a conduit between private capital, government and the critical minerals industry, announced Wednesday the development of a new $150 million critical minerals processing hub in Rupert, West Virginia. 

Developed in coordination with the White House, the initiative is backed entirely by private investment rather than state government subsidies, taxpayer funding, or state incentives, GreenMet said, adding that private investors recognized the strategic advantages of West Virginia’s abundant natural resources and skilled workforce. 

The partnership brings together companies from across the US, including Flash Metals USA of Houston; AmForge Corporation of Washington, D.C.; GreenMet and Greenbrier Smokeless Coal Company of Rupert, West Virginia. 

The partners plan to combine state-of-the-art processing technologies, expertise in complex resource and infrastructure development, and access to one of the nation’s largest reserves of Mid-Vol coking coal to recover rare earth elements from West Virginia coal tailings and establish a reliable domestic source of critical minerals. 

Rare earth minerals are essential to advanced technologies, national defense systems, energy infrastructure, and next-generation manufacturing.  

The United States currently relies heavily on foreign sources for these strategic materials and the initiative represents a significant step toward securing a resilient domestic supply chain and reducing America’s dependence on overseas production, GreenMet said.  

The project will operate as a hub-and-spoke critical minerals processing network, with Greenbrier County serving as the central processing hub.  

When fully operational, the facility is expected to create nearly 250 jobs. In addition to processing coal tailings from across West Virginia, the project has secured mineral offtake agreements to process critical minerals from Greenland, the Woodstock manganese project in New Brunswick, Canada and Cameroon.  

The project has also secured an additional $10 billion in private capital commitments to support the development of related processing facilities, mines, and strategic mineral projects, GreenMet said.