The company building the nation's first heavy rare earth separation facility at the Port of Vinton has received a letter of interest from a federal bank for up to $750 million in financing, on top of the roughly $277 million it already expects to spend building the plant. Aclara Resources says groundbreaking on the project, known as Project Dynamo, could happen as early as the fourth quarter of this year, with the goal of having the Calcasieu Parish facility fully operational by the end of 2027.
The financing interest comes from the Export-Import Bank of the United States, according to New Orleans CityBusiness, whose reporting on the letter of interest and the project's federal backing anchors much of what's known about the financing side of the deal. The bank's offer is non-binding and subject to formal due diligence before any loan is actually disbursed, but if it comes through, the outlet reports the money could fund downstream expansions or other supply chain developments beyond the initial build.
At Vinton, Aclara plans to extract heavy rare earths from ores mined at its operations in Brazil and Chile, then process those materials into individual rare earth oxides before separating out neodymium-praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium. The feedstock itself traces back to Aclara's ionic clay deposits in South America — namely the Carina Project in Goiás, Brazil, and the Penco Module in Biobío, Chile — according to Junior Mining Network. The company's Circular Mineral Harvesting extraction process is designed to recycle up to 95% of its process water.
From Raw Ore to Finished Magnet Alloys
The plant isn't stopping at separation. Aclara Resources will convert those separated heavy rare earths into high-performance permanent magnet alloys, the kind required for electric vehicles, defense systems, robotics, and heavy power-generation equipment, per the New Orleans CityBusiness report. Company representative François Motte said Aclara will provide finished products rather than a mixed carbonate, according to the same outlet's account.
The scale of that downstream ambition is laid out in Aclara's own technical filings. The co-located metals and alloys facility is engineered to produce an annual average of 154 tonnes of iron-dysprosium metal, 19 tonnes of terbium metal, 811 tonnes of neodymium-praseodymium metal, and 2,681 tonnes of neodymium-iron-boron alloys, according to Aclara Resources. That downstream metals branch is structured as a 50/50 joint venture with steelmaker CAP S.A., and financial evaluations project an after-tax net present value of $203 million, a 25% internal rate of return, and a payback period of 3.7 years, the company reports.
Aclara estimates that once Project Dynamo reaches full capacity, it could supply more than 75% of total U.S. demand for dysprosium and terbium used in electric vehicle manufacturing by 2028. That projection matters against a stark backdrop: International Energy Agency data shows China accounted for roughly 91% of global rare earth separation and refining production and 94% of permanent magnet production in 2024, a concentration that has only drawn more scrutiny since Chinese export controls tightened in 2025.
AI Modeling and Federal Backing Feed Into the Build
Argonne National Laboratory is providing advanced computing and AI process modeling for the project, and the Department of Energy selected Aclara to receive federal funding for an AI-assisted digital twin meant to optimize its separation processes, according to New Orleans CityBusiness. That effort draws on real-world operational data from Aclara's pilot plant at Virginia Tech University, where the company has been testing its proprietary solvent extraction process since March 2026 while also running an industrial-scale molten salt electrolysis cell in Chile, according to Seeking Alpha.
The digital twin work fits under the broader Genesis Mission, which aims to deploy advanced computing and AI across domestic manufacturing and critical-material supply chains and carries $293 million in funding, the CityBusiness report notes. It's paired with the federal Make More in America Initiative, launched in 2022, which aims to revitalize domestic manufacturing and strengthen critical U.S. supply chains — the same policy umbrella under which the Export-Import Bank's letter of interest falls.
State Incentives and a Fast-Tracked Permitting Fight
Louisiana has stacked its own incentives on top of the federal interest. Aclara will receive $20.8 million in state property tax exemptions through the Louisiana Industrial Tax Exemption Program, which grants an 80% property tax break over an initial five-year term — a savings the company expects to run about $4.2 million annually. Governor Jeff Landry signed the contract granting that exemption, according to CityBusiness, on top of the LED FastStart workforce training services and $3 million performance-based infrastructure grant that KEDM reported when Louisiana Economic Development first announced the project.
That October 2025 announcement projected Project Dynamo would create 140 direct jobs and 456 indirect jobs, a total of 596 job opportunities for Southwest Louisiana — figures Hoodline covered in its own report on the initial announcement. Aclara chose the 82-acre certified site at the Port of Vinton after evaluating more than 100 candidate locations nationwide, drawn by direct access to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and proximity to regional chlor-alkali chemical suppliers, according to Manufacturing.net.
In August, Landry signed executive orders — including JML 26-079 — requiring state agencies to complete environmental reviews for heavy rare earth extraction and advanced chemical processing plants within 90 days. Landry said federal permitting bureaucracy has killed businesses and jobs across the country, per CityBusiness's reporting. Environmental advocacy groups contend the fast-tracked reviews risk circumventing essential oversight, and the Louisiana Bucket Brigade argues compressed timelines reduce time for public comment and independent ecological assessments — concerns that carry particular weight since some of the reviews could affect sites near coastal wetlands. According to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Part IX of the state's water-pollution-control regulations establishes requirements and procedures for permitting, enforcement and monitoring.
