GRAMERCY, La. — DADA Holdings Chairman and CEO David D’Addario and Enervoxa CEO Vandit Verma have announced that ElementUS, a joint venture of DADA and Enervoxa, will make an $800 million capital investment to extract rare earth elements at the Noranda Alumina site in Gramercy. The plan 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,” said Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards. “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 currently employs more than 400 manufacturing workers at the Gramercy site, which also serves as headquarters for New Day Aluminum, a DADA Holdings company that includes Noranda Alumina; a bauxite subsidiary in Jamaica; affiliated alumina and specialty minerals businesses in Louisiana, France and the U.K; and a ferrous and non-ferrous recycling business with operations in the southeastern United States.
“We could not be more thrilled to be partnering with Enervoxa on this game-changing green venture in Louisiana,” D’Addario said. “Rare earth elements are in short supply and are vital to national defense, critical technologies and domestic industry in general. We, alongside Enervoxa, have the opportunity to extract and commercialize valuable rare earths and other minerals while at the same time further reducing the environmental footprint at our alumina refining business and the U.S. dependence on China for these limited and technologically strategic minerals.”
