ElementUS, a joint venture of DADA and Enervoxa, announced last week that it’s planning to make an $800 million capital investment to extract rare earth elements at the Noranda Alumina site in Gramercy, La., according to Louisiana Economic Development. The project is subject to a final investment decision within the next year.
DADA Holdings owns Gramercy-based Noranda Alumina and is partnering with green technology firm Enervoxa to separate rare earth elements and other valuable minerals from alumina byproducts. The Gramercy site has a 35 million dry-ton reserve of mineral-rich residual bauxite.
The carbon-neutral project would result in 200 new direct jobs, with an average annual salary of more than $85,000, plus benefits. Louisiana Economic Development estimates an additional 590 new indirect jobs would result, for a total of nearly 800 new jobs in Louisiana’s Southeast Region and surrounding areas.
“Since we launched our Climate Initiatives Task Force in 2020 we continue to emphasize the extraordinary natural resources Louisiana possesses in our existing petrochemical and energy sector,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a statement. “ElementUS represents another example of how we can achieve a lower-carbon future by adapting the resources that already exist in Louisiana, applying new technology and leveraging our talented industrial workforce.”
Noranda Alumina employs more than 400 manufacturing workers at the Gramercy site. See the LED press release for more information.
