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Energy Fuels Completes $229 Million Acquisition of Australian Strategic Materials

Published: September 16, 2026 |

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Energy Fuels has completed its acquisition of Australian Strategic Materials Limited (ASM), a leading producer of REE metals and alloys. The acquisition of ASM marks a major milestone in Energy Fuels’ long-term growth strategy to build an integrated mine-to-magnet rare earth platform.

“We are thrilled to welcome the ASM team to Energy Fuels. ASM brings exceptional technical expertise, commercial experience and proven capabilities in rare earth metals and alloys that significantly strengthen our organization and accelerate our strategy to build a fully integrated, Western mine-to-magnet supply chain,” said Ross Bhappu, president and CEO of Energy Fuels.

By adding ASM’s operating Korean Metals Plant in Ochang, South Korea, Energy Fuels immediately gains commercial scale metal and alloy production capacity, expanding into one of the most critical and constrained vulnerabilities of global rare earth supply chains. Energy Fuels also intends to replicate this capability at a new American metals plant as market conditions warrant, leveraging the proven technology and operational expertise developed at the Korean metals plant. Additionally, ASM’s Dubbo Project in Australia brings a long-life and strategically important resource of rare earths and other critical minerals to Energy Fuels’ portfolio.

“The closing of the ASM acquisition is a defining moment in Energy Fuels’ strategy to become a fully integrated mine-to-magnet rare earth company and demonstrates our team’s successful execution on that vision. With ASM’s existing operating facilities, proven technical expertise, and intellectual property now a part of Energy Fuels, we have assembled commercial capabilities at all upstream and midstream stages of the rare earth permanent magnet supply chain,” said Ross Bhappu.

The acquisition of ASM adds 1,300 tonnes per year of existing neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) alloy production capacity at the Korean metals plant, along with existing commercial metallization capabilities for neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), and developing metallization capabilities for dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb). This directly complements Energy Fuels’ NdPr, Tb, and Dy oxide production and expansion initiatives at its White Mesa Mill in Utah (Mill). The Korean metals plant is currently being expanded to increase NdFeB alloy capacity to 3,600 tonnes per year and is expected to be commissioned as early as the end of 2026. The expansion potentially represents enough NdFeB alloy for more than 1 million EVs per year.

“We are excited to join Energy Fuels and contribute to a leading Western rare earth supply chain, and I would like to thank ASM employees and shareholders for their support in getting us to this point. The combination of Energy Fuels and ASM represents a major step forward in the development of a secure, diversified rare earth platform that the world increasingly needs, and we look forward to demonstrating the value that the combined company will bring,” said Rowena Smith, former CEO of ASM.

Together with Energy Fuels’ portfolio of heavy mineral sands projects in Brazil, Australia, and Madagascar, the ASM transaction firmly establishes the company’s position across mining, processing, oxides, metals, and alloys, creating a robust platform for its planned entry into permanent magnet production.


Energy Fuels is a leading U.S.-based critical minerals company, focused on uranium, REEs, heavy mineral sands (HMS), vanadium and medical isotopes. The company has been the leading U.S. producer of natural uranium concentrate for the past several years, which is sold to nuclear utilities that process it further for the production of carbon-free nuclear energy and owns and operates several conventional and in-situ recovery uranium projects in the western United States. The company also owns the White Mesa Mill (the Mill) in Utah, which is the only fully licensed and operating conventional uranium processing facility in the United States. At the Mill, the company also produces advanced REE products, vanadium oxide, and is evaluating the recovery of certain medical isotopes from existing uranium process streams needed for emerging cancer treatments. The company also owns the Kwale HMS project in Kenya which ceased mining and commenced final reclamation activities at the end of 2024, and is developing three additional HMS projects: the Toliara Project in Madagascar; the Bahia Project in Brazil; and the Donald Project in Australia in which the company has the right to earn up to a 49 percent interest in a joint venture with Astron Corporation. The company is based in Lakewood, Colorado, near Denver, with its heavy mineral sands operations managed from Perth, Australia.


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