United Rare Earths team gathers for Thursday meeting

‘We have the great fortune of having a world class team of professionals’- Jeffrey Willis, CEO

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- Ahead of Thursday’s United Rare Earths (URE) meeting of key personnel, CEO Jeffrey Willis expressed he’s very pleased with the project as URE transitions into the next phase. The phase is more focused on getting the actual construction underway on the site at the Erschell Collins Industrial Park, off I-75 Exit 141, the Huntsville-Oneida Exit.

The first phase will be a magnet recycling facility, the second phase will be a separation facility to separate newly mined materials, and finally the third phase will be research into sustainable energy. Once the facility is up and running, it will result in high paying jobs for Campbell County, while reinforcing the nation’s economic independence and increasing national security, according to United Rare Earths officials.

When compared to a business that you see in most towns and cities, Willis said it’s far more complicated than starting something that has been done in this country before.  We have the great fortune of having a world class team of professionals now with the development team here from Tennessee, architects and engineers as well as extended professionals like Oak Ridge National Laboratories which has partnered with us on this recycling operation to bring a mitigating effort to China and the national domestic solution for our needs here.

“As you can see, there’s so much of the team here today.  We have our developers, our architects, our engineers.  Our focus is on getting this operation recycling up in the nearest terms,” said Willis speaking from URE offices on the second floor of the Jacksboro Community Trust Bank building. 

“It is important to our country, especially now as we’re in conflicts around the world that require military intervention.  The replacement of our weapons system requires rare earths, particularly heavy rare earths. We’re focused on heavy rare earths at our downstream site here with recycling and ultimately refining for the principal interest of national interest as well,” Willis said.

When asked if he would take a stab at a timetable for completion of the first building Willis said, “I’ll take a stab at it. We’re hoping within the next 24 months.  We’ll have things pretty well underway, near completion here.”

Willis emphasized how grateful he and his staff are to be here in the community. “We are enormously proud of the support we’ve gotten from our leaders like Senator Bill Haggerty, Congressman Chuck Fleischmann, Mayor Jack Lynch and others,” said Willis.

In his exclusive interview with WLAF Willis said “We are looking very much forward to being a great service to elevate the community on all levels including jobs and opportunities.” (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-0/29/2026-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF WLAF’S CHARLIE HUTSON)