At its Jan. 9 meeting, council approved a performance-based economic development agreement with ElementUSA, a Florida-based company that specializes in evaluating chemical and physical properties of waste materials, according to agenda documents.
Dig deeper
The company plans to operate a 30,000-square-foot research and development facility at 1200 BMC Drive, according to the documents.
At the R&D facility, workers will test and sample various mineral and metallic tailings–waste products from mining–to develop technical processes to extract important minerals used in steelmaking, aerospace, electric vehicles and wind turbines, according to the documents.
The company is expected to lease the Cedar Park facility no later than Dec. 31.
Additionally, ElementUSA is expected to hire 19 full-time equivalent positions with a combined total annual payroll of at least $2.81 million at the facility by Dec. 31, 2026, and and it is expected to up the number of FTEs to 28, making a combined $4.22 million, by Dec. 31, 2027, according to the documents.
What they’re saying
“The R&D will help facilitate recycled rare earth minerals back into the supply chain, and as we all know, rare earth minerals are increasingly significant to national security due to their critical role in advanced technology and defense applications,” said Arthur Jackson, Cedar Park’s chief economic development officer.
Jackson said the United States relies almost entirely on other countries for rare earth elements supply, and the facility in Cedar Park will help the country address that issue.
“This is exactly the kind of business we see having a bright future in Cedar Park,” Mayor Jim Penniman-Morin said.
