In this case study, Virginia Tech, a public land-grant research university whose Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering produces 20% of America’s mining engineering graduates, partnered with Aclara Resources, a Canadian-headquartered critical minerals company with mine-to-magnet operations in Brazil and Chile, to solve a dual strategic gap: Aclara needed a U.S.-based demonstration facility to access government customers and automotive supply chains, while Virginia Tech needed industry-scale infrastructure to keep its mining engineering program relevant. In August 2025, the two signed an MOU establishing Aclara’s heavy rare earth element (HREE) separation pilot plant on Virginia Tech’s Corporate Research Center campus — a facility producing high-purity didymium, terbium, and dysprosium from ionic clay feedstock. We evaluated this partnership to help your team structure similarly ambitious critical minerals collaborations.
1. Executive Summary
In August 2025, Virginia Tech and Aclara Resources signed an MOU establishing Aclara’s heavy rare earth element separation pilot plant on Virginia Tech’s Corporate Research Center campus. The facility produces high-purity didymium, terbium, and dysprosium from ionic clay feedstock sourced from Aclara’s South American projects, addressing a critical vulnerability in the global rare earth supply chain while training the next generation of minerals engineers.
- Subject: Aclara Resources (Canadian critical minerals company, Carina Project in Brazil, Penco Module in Chile) and Virginia Tech (Dept of Mining and Minerals Engineering, produces 20% of U.S. mining engineering graduates)
- Problem: Aclara needed a U.S.-based demonstration facility to access government customers and automotive supply chains; Virginia Tech needed industry infrastructure to keep its mining engineering program relevant
- Solution: Physical co-location — industry pilot plant on university research park land with student and faculty access
- Result: Working >99.5% purity rare earth separation plant serving commercial customers while training the next generation of minerals engineers
2. The Challenge
China controls approximately 90% of global heavy rare earth processing capacity, creating a strategic vulnerability for Western economies that depend on these elements for defense systems, electric vehicles, and renewable energy technologies. Aclara had developed proprietary ion-adsorption clay processing technology but needed to demonstrate it on U.S. soil to access American customers. Virginia Tech’s mining engineering program — the nation’s largest — needed industry-scale infrastructure that federal grants alone could not provide.
- China supply chain dominance: China controls ~90% of heavy rare earth processing. Aclara needed to demonstrate its alternative technology on U.S. soil to break the dependence.
- Infrastructure gap: Virginia Tech’s mining engineering program needed industry-scale infrastructure that federal grants alone couldn’t provide. A working pilot plant was beyond academic budget capacity.
- Dual-purpose design challenge: Both sides needed a partnership structure that served commercial production and academic research simultaneously — most industry-university partnerships serve only one master.
Both sides recognized that a traditional grant-funded research project would not solve either problem. Aclara needed operational infrastructure, not academic papers. Virginia Tech needed a working industrial facility, not research publications. The challenge was designing a structure that could serve both masters simultaneously.
3. The Strategy
Rather than structuring a conventional research sponsorship or remote pilot plant, Virginia Tech and Aclara chose physical co-location on the university’s Corporate Research Center campus — deliberately embedding Aclara’s commercial operations within Virginia Tech’s academic ecosystem to create daily interaction between industry engineers and faculty researchers.
- Physical co-location: Aclara’s pilot plant sited on Virginia Tech’s Corporate Research Center — the most durable form of academic-industry partnership. Industry engineers and faculty researchers interact daily, creating organic collaboration that formal agreements cannot design.
- Built on existing credibility: Virginia Tech’s 64+ federally sponsored rare earth projects worth $32M+ provided the research depth that gave Aclara confidence to invest. Government-funded research credibility attracted industry investment.
- Dual-purpose facility: The pilot plant serves commercial production for Aclara’s customers and hands-on training for Virginia Tech students — a rare combination that most partnerships don’t achieve. The same facility produces revenue and talent.
Resources were split by comparative strength: Aclara contributed the pilot plant equipment, feedstock, and commercial operating expertise; Virginia Tech contributed land, research infrastructure, faculty expertise, and student talent. The MOU established a collaborative framework for research, training, and facility access without a complex contractual structure.
4. The Results
The Virginia Tech-Aclara partnership produced one of the most tangible outcomes in critical minerals academic-industry collaboration: a working rare earth separation plant operating on a U.S. university campus within months of signing.
- >99.5% purity separation: Working pilot plant producing high-purity individual rare earth elements from ionic clay feedstock — didymium, terbium, and dysprosium at commercial-grade purity levels
- Student training platform: Hands-on facility for the university that produces 20% of America’s mining engineers. Students gain experience on commercial-scale separation technology that no classroom can replicate.
- International supply chain demonstration: Aclara’s feedstock from the Carina Project (Brazil) supplies the Blacksburg facility, creating an end-to-end supply chain demonstration linking South American resources to U.S. processing capability
The partnership achieved its primary strategic objective within months: demonstrating Aclara’s technology on U.S. soil while establishing Virginia Tech as the definitive academic hub for critical minerals processing research and talent development.
5. The Melan Approach
Melan advises structuring partnerships like this one when the capability gap is physical infrastructure and talent access — the on-campus pilot plant model works best when the industry partner needs operational infrastructure and the academic partner needs industry-scale facilities that grants cannot fund.
- Governance model: MOU-based collaborative framework with Virginia Tech’s Corporate Research Center providing pre-existing industry-university infrastructure. Melan would add a formal shared IP framework for joint inventions, which is currently being developed rather than pre-negotiated.
- Risk allocation: Physical co-location shifts operational risk to Aclara as the facility owner. Melan recommends reserving 10-15% of plant capacity for faculty-directed research to ensure the partnership serves academic priorities alongside commercial production.
- Shared goal: Break China’s near-monopoly on heavy rare earth processing while building America’s mining engineering talent pipeline. Melan would add mid-term governance reviews to ensure the plant continues serving both commercial and academic objectives as it scales.
This on-campus pilot plant model is replicable at lower investment levels for mid-cap critical minerals companies and R1 universities with existing government-funded research programs in mining, minerals, or chemical engineering.
Building a critical minerals academic-industry partnership?
Melan helps mining and minerals companies structure on-campus pilot plant partnerships with pre-negotiated IP frameworks and dual-purpose facility agreements.
