CARYVILLE, Tenn — Leaders from the town of Caryville, the state of Tennessee and the federal government broke ground Wednesday on land where United Rare Earths plans to build a 50,000-square-foot facility, bringing 80 jobs and at least $30 million in investment to the Campbell County town.
On Monday, the Caryville Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted -- for a second time -- to approve the sale of the plot of land, this time following Tennessee law. 10News revealed earlier this month in an investigation that town leaders may have broken state law in how they conducted their first vote on the sale.
In October, Caryville Mayor Rob Stooksbury called a special meeting for the board to "discuss industrial property." At the meeting, the board voted to sell 39 acres of land, though the mayor did not disclose the buyer or the terms of the proposed agreement.
"The word discuss does not imply that a vote would be taken. Given the above, it is likely that Caryville violated [the law]," said J. Seth May, assistant general counsel at the state Comptroller's Office, in an email earlier this month.
Reflecting a change, Monday's meeting agenda said the board would "discuss and vote on possible sale of 144 Sonny Boshears Lane, Pioneer TN 37847."
"We had a language issue with our previous meeting. That was all taken care of by the meeting we had this past week," Stooksbury told WBIR on Wednesday. "You learn and move on so that won't be an issue anymore."
10News sent an open records request to Caryville and had multiple conversations with Stooksbury about Tennessee law before he agreed to release the option agreement for the sale to our investigative team. On Dec. 8, 2023, 10News reported United Rare Earths would buy that plot of land. Caryville formally announced the buyer at the groundbreaking Wednesday.
United Rare Earths said it will recycle rare earth materials from magnets and industrial waste products, the company's chairman Jeffrey Willis said. The UT Baker Center said, right now, more than 90% of the world's rare earth material is made by Chinese companies.
"There's a national need and we have Oak Ridge National Lab as a partner," Willis said. "That could impact our ability to advance our efforts to join the rest of the world to pursue clean energy and renewable energy sources."
East Tennessee Congressman Chuck Fleischmann said this investment is important to national security.
"Because of China's dominance in this market, a lot of domestic endeavors will not even try to venture into this space," Fleischmann said.
Leaders said the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development was involved from a state level. The department's East Tennessee representative declined an interview Wednesday.
