A $1.5 billion metals refinery supposedly planned for construction in Amarillo, Texas, by Canadian corporation Chemical Vapor Metal Refining (CVMR) and its founder, Kamran Khozan, has been abandoned.
The facility was projected to encompass approximately 500,000 square feet on 540 acres off US-60, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held in June 2022.
Company, county and city officials said CVMR expected to hire 1,000 new employees in the first phase of the project, with the potential of up to 2,500 employees in future phases, consisting of $97 million of annual projected payroll.
According to the Texas Real Estate Research Center, the Amarillo deal would provide CVMR with $20 million for the creation of more than 1,000 jobs over the next 10 years and a 100% tax abatement for 10 years.
CVMR officials met with members of the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation on Nov. 18, 2024. The first phase of the CVMR refinery was projected to produce 10,000 tons per year of high-purity nickel powders and nickel nano powders based on CVMR’s proprietary powder metallurgy processes and technologies.
Khozan and CVMR President Michael Hargett were photographed together at the Amarillo site on Nov. 19, 2024.
Nevertheless, “Nothing was built,” Doug Nelson, senior vice president of the Amarillo Economic Development Corp., told Southwest Ledger on March 31. “Basically, we were under an agreement to incentivize them to come to our community” and build a refinery. However, “They did not meet all the terms of that agreement,” Nelson said.
“Early on we transferred land to them. But because they didn’t meet the terms of that agreement by the start date, they gave us that land back” and the contractual agreement was canceled.
Phase one of the project was to have involved the refining of nickel; thereafter the modules for the refining of heavy rare earth elements would be commissioned and become operational, CVMR reported on its website.
Heavy rare earth metals are defined by their higher atomic weights relative to light rare earths. They are less common, and some elements within the group are facing shortages as demand outpaces supply. That typically makes them more valuable than light rare earths. They include elements such as dysprosium, yttrium, terbium, holmium, erbium, thulium and lutetium.
Most of the minerals CVMR said it planned to refine in Amarillo are “sourced within the United States and Canada, thus making sure that their supply chain is secure and the risks associated with the supply of raw materials are minimized,” the company wrote.