A Canadian rare earth explorer and developer will work with Stanford University’s Mineral-X initiative on joint development of AI-powered predictive models to better understand and target RE mineralisation in regolith and ionic clays.
Aclara Resources has the Carina rare earth element project in Goias, Brazil, and Penco Module in Chile’s Biobio region. It wants to apply its Circular Mineral Harvesting extraction process for ionic clay-hosted RE deposits, claiming it minimises water consumption and overall environmental impact through recycling and circular economy principles.
Aclara also has a US subsidiary, Aclara Technologies, aiming to build a RE separation plant in the country. The plant would process mixed rare earth carbonates from Aclara’s sites, separating them into pure individual RE oxides.
Aclara Technologies this week signed a letter of intent with Stanford to form an “academic and technological alliance”. It said the agreement established a foundation for “leveraging advanced AI solutions to optimise the heavy REE supply chain from the ground up-starting with exploration and continuing through processing and supply chain integration”.
It would also facilitate academic and technical exchange between researchers, students and industry professionals to support “mutual training, knowledge transfer and capacity building”. The alliance would look for “innovation opportunities in sustainable exploration, traceability and responsible development of REE supply chains”.
Aclara and Stanford University Mineral-X might also co-author scientific publications and jointly manage intellectual property related to AI applications in exploration, “ensuring confidentiality and managing intellectual property rights in accordance with each party’s internal policies”.
“This partnership with Stanford’s Mineral-X reinforces our commitment to innovation and leadership in the global rare earth supply chain,” Aclara CEO Ramon Barua said. The company aimed to refine and enhance its use of AI to accelerate discovery and development of ionic clay-hosted RE deposits, crucial sources of the HREEs needed for permanent magnets in electric vehicles and wind turbines.
“By embedding Aclara into Silicon Valley’s innovation ecosystem and combining our expertise in heavy rare earths with Mineral-X’s advanced AI technologies we aim to jointly develop smarter, cleaner and more secure solutions that strengthen the resilience of alternative supply chains,” Barua said.
Mineral-X founder and Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability professor, Jef Caers said Mineral-X wanted to “push the boundary on the predictive capacity of the human-in-loop data science and AI, thereby making the exploration enterprise more efficient, more targeted and less expensive”.
