L3 Process Development

L3 Process Development is a privately held Canadian metallurgical and process-engineering company based in Quebec, specializing in the development, testing and scale-up of hydrometallurgical flowsheets for rare earths and other critical minerals. The firm supports mining and downstream developers through bench-scale, pilot and demonstration-scale process design, focusing on rare-earth leaching, solvent extraction and separation technologies. Its expertise includes blending acidic rare-earth leachate with organic phases containing phosphoric-acid-based extractants to selectively chelate and separate rare-earth ions, enabling the production of separated rare-earth oxides and mixed rare-earth carbonates. Led by chief technical officer Tommee Larochelle, L3 Process Development works with junior miners and processors seeking to establish rare-earth refining and separation capacity outside of China, addressing a critical bottleneck in the Western rare-earth supply chain for elements such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium used in permanent magnets and clean-energy technologies.