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The company holds a 600,000-tonne total rare earth oxide (TREO) resource at its Ampasindava project in the Indian Ocean island state, rich in heavy rare earths needed for magnets, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and defense applications.
Unlike traditional hard-rock mining, Harena plans to produce concentrate via heap leaching. “We are not a mining company,” Ivan Murphy said in an interview on Tuesday October 28. “On site we’re heap-leaching to take out and create a concentrate, which we’ll ship for refining.”
This method is both low-impact and energy-efficient, giving the company an environmental edge in a sector often criticized for its footprint.
Harena’s development strategy is tightly aligned with US industrial and strategic priorities.
The company is pursuing an OTC listing to attract American investors and engage with government agencies. “We want to be part of the solution to feed concentrate into what’s needed in the US,” Murphy said.
The company has already secured major US-focused shareholders, including Connecticut-based Wexford Capital and Houston-based Fondren LP. In the UK, RAB Capital has invested, joining other prominent backers such as Carlyle Group’s Jeff Currie, former head of oil and gas at Goldman Sachs.
Murphy described the approach as deliberate, reflecting more than market size. According to Murphy, the US has taken the most proactive approach among Western nations to securing critical minerals.
“The US has the best strategy in critical minerals and rare earths in the Western world at the moment,” he said. “They are incredibly proactive and, through agencies such as the International Development Finance Corporation and EXIM Bank, the US is putting markers down, which is such a smart idea.”
This contrasts with slower moves being made by Europe and other regions, where funding and regulatory support are less coordinated, Murphy said. For companies such as Harena, this makes the US the most attractive jurisdiction in which to secure both capital and long-term offtake arrangements, he added.
Murphy noted that offtake agreements will likely be defined once the project is further along the feasibility study path. “That would be very much defined by what sort of partnership we might enter into, either with the US or with others,” he said.
Interest in rare earths has heightened while supply remains concentrated in China, which controls more than 90% of global processing capacity. Beijing’s export controls, tightened in recent years amid geopolitical tensions, have intensified efforts in the West to diversify supply.
But the dynamics are shifting, with Western original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in sectors such as defense, clean energy and advanced manufacturing increasingly looking for traceable, non-Chinese sources of rare earths.
While electric vehicles and wind power remain key demand drivers, robotics and AI-related applications are emerging as new growth areas, he said.
“It is not just magnets,” Murphy added. “The use of robots within defense and AI is starting to explode, and demand for rare earths is exponentially growing, faster than even the other requirements.”
Harena is advancing through Madagascar’s three-stage licensing system – exploration, transformation, exploitation – and is currently at the transformation stage.
Murphy outlined the next steps, which will be: submitting the pre-feasibility study, upgrading the license to the exploitation permit; and moving to a defined feasibility study with support from corporate partners and agencies.
Once the feasibility study is under way, pilot testing and proof-of-concept work can start, supported by Madagascar’s waiver system for early-stage project activities, Murphy said.
He believes that production could begin within two years.
“It’s entirely a function of the nature of our mineralization,” he told Fastmarkets, “because it’s the clay and we can do it, plus we only need some relatively minor infrastructure to get us down to the port from where we are.”
According to Murphy, the Ampasindava project also benefits from shifting political dynamics in Madagascar. This year, youth-led activism pushed for economic reforms, faster approvals and a more stable business environment.
The unrest, while disruptive, has largely been economically driven, with protesters demanding jobs, infrastructure and better governance rather than pursuing tribal or regional aims.
Murphy said that, for investors, the shift toward a government focused on efficiency and stability reduces risk for project licensing and execution.
Looking five years ahead, Murphy said that he sees Harena contributing materially to US rare earth independence.
“In five years, we would like to be contributing to the critical minerals issue of reducing US dependence on Chinese rare earths supply in a substantive way,” he told Fastmarkets.
The company is also exploring opportunities in Africa for other critical minerals such as graphite and lithium, he said, although Ampasindava remains the priority.
Murphy also expects sector consolidation to follow. “It’ll just make sense to put projects together,” he said, “for economies of scale and to build bigger powerhouses in critical minerals.”
In Hotter Commodities, special correspondent Andrea Hotter covers some of the biggest stories impacting the natural resources sector. Read more coverage on our dedicated Hotter Commodities page here.