The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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National Mining Association President and CEO Rich Nolan says the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the risks associated with America's overreliance on foreign supply chains for nearly every sector of the economy, especially when it comes to minerals. "As states continue to open across the country, we must focus on investing in and establishing domestic supply chains to help speed our economic recovery and make us more resilient to future crises," he penned in a June 9 letter....
From helmet mounted radios to laser guided missiles, rare earth elements (REE) are an essential ingredient to the advanced hardware used by the U.S. military. These high-tech metals, however, are not produced in America, forcing the Pentagon to depend primarily on China for its supply. As part of a joint armed forces effort to establish a domestic source of rare earths, the U.S. Army is looking to invest in the processing facilities needed to ensure a reliable supply of these...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. has added two prominent technical advisors to a team it has pulled together to design a heavy rare earth element solvent extraction plant to be developed in Southeast Alaska. These advisors include SGS Canada, a testing and certification firm that has invested significantly in solvent extraction design and testing facilities, which includes an SX pilot plant at its facility in Lakefield, Ontario. Ucore said this pilot plant has the capacity to...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. has unveiled a three-tier strategy for delivering a non-Chinese source of rare earth elements to North American markets from its Bokan Mountain project in Alaska. Called M3, for mines, metals and markets, Ucore's plan to meet the needs of an independent rare earth supply chain in the United States includes three initiatives: advancing its Bokan-Dotson Ridge rare earths project in Southeast Alaska to shovel-ready status; developing an associated facility...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. Aug. 22 announce that that it met with senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) in separate visits to Ketchikan, Alaska, to discuss Ucore's promise as a secure domestic supply source for rare earth elements crucial to U.S. defense, manufacturing, and industrial base needs. "We're delighted to be working with two influential federal senators, both of whom recognize the importance of secure domestic supply chains for critical...
With the issuance of five presidential determinations related to the domestic production of rare earth metals and magnets, President Donald Trump is making it clear the White House sees this group of 17 technology elements as essential to the security of the United States. In five memos sent to the secretary of defense on July 22, Trump made an official determination under Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950 that domestic production, separation and manufacturing...
Earlier this month Reuters reported that several agencies within the U.S. Federal government were "rapidly assessing" our domestic ability to mine and refine rare earth elements and utilize those 17 super cool elements in value-added products needed for a wide and ever-growing array of consumer and national defense products. Not surprisingly, mining industry officials demurred when quizzed about supplying information on where rare elements might be mined in the U.S. and how...
The U.S. Department of Commerce June 4 released "A federal strategy to ensure secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals," an interagency report that outlines a government-wide action plan to ensure the United States has secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals. Department of Commerce was charged with spearheading this report under Executive Order 13817, which was signed by President Donald Trump late in 2017. Trump's critical minerals executive order...
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) have teamed up to introduce bipartisan legislation aimed at addressing America's "Achilles' heel" – a heavy dependence on foreign countries for its growing mineral needs. "Our nation's mineral security is a significant, urgent, and often ignored challenge. Our reliance on China and other nations for critical minerals costs us jobs, weakens our economic competitiveness, and leaves us at a geopolitical d...
Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) continues to be interested in funding the Strategic Metals Complex, or SMC, a rare earth element separation facility that Ucore Rare Metals is planning to develop in Ketchikan, Alaska. In 2014, the Alaska Legislature authorized AIDEA to invest up to US$145 million to help finance the development of a mine at Ucore's Bokan Mountain rare earth deposit on Prince of Wales Island, which is located about 30 miles southwest...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. Sept. 24 reported it has entered into an agreement to acquire the property to build its Strategic Metals Complex, or SMC, a rare earth element and strategic metals refinery and separation plant to be built near the Southeast Alaska port town of Ketchikan. The SMC being planned for the six acres Ucore is acquiring north of Ketchikan will utilize IBC Advanced Technologies' molecular recognition technology, commonly known as MRT, to separate rare earths...
Underscoring the interconnected nature of the global mining market, not 48 hours after the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law, the mining industry began wondering out loud how they were going to produce rare earth element, tungsten, tantalum and molybdenum in the near future. Why these metals and why the worry now? Because one of the many impacts the Defense Authorization Act will have on the U.S. economy is its ban on the U.S. Department of...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. Aug. 14 said the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 signed into law by President Donald Trump is a turning point for the rare earth element sector in the United States. The new legislation, more commonly known as the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, prohibits the U.S. Department of Defense from acquiring rare earth magnets – along with certain tungsten, tantalum and molybdenum products – from China, Rus...
The Trump Administration's latest round of tariffs on Chinese goods includes a 10 percent levy on rare earth elements, a group of 17 elements on the periodic table with unique properties that make them key ingredients in a wide array of modern high-tech products such as terabyte hard-drives that fit in the palm of your hand, high-efficiency green-power generation and sophisticated military hardware. For decades, China has dominated the REE market and has largely controlled...
For the fourth year running, Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, has put forward the legislation aimed at streamlining the process for permitting strategic and critical minerals in the United States. "Critical and strategic minerals are essential to the technologies that make our daily lives and economy work. Unfortunately, when it comes to mining strategic and critical minerals domestically, duplicative regulations, bureaucratic inefficiency, and lack of coordination between federal...
U.S. President Donald Trump sparked a renewed interest in critical minerals and metals when he issued an executive order calling on federal agencies to devise a strategy to ensure the United States has reliable supplies of these commodities vital to America's economic and strategic security. "It shall be the policy of the federal government to reduce the nation's vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals, which constitutes a strategic vulnerability for...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. has field programs underway at both the Bokan-Dotson Ridge rare earth elements project in Southeast Alaska and its Ray Mountain REE-tin project in the Interior region of the state. Work at Bokan Mountain is focused on collecting the last bits of information needed to complete a plan of operation that can be submitted for permitting and finalize a feasibility study scheduled for delivery in 2015. As a potential domestic source of a suite of heavy rare...
After eight years of increasing federal regulations, United States miners are encouraged that President Donald Trump, Congress and the American people have formed a trifecta that will support policies aimed at streamline permitting and encourage growth in the mining sector. A poll conducted for NMA earlier this month indicates that the U.S. mining sector and the American populace at large have similar priorities for the Trump administration and 115th Congress. "When they cast...
According to the United States Geological Survey’s annual report, “Mineral Commodity Summaries 2017,” the value of non-fuel minerals produced in the United States and Alaska during 2016 remained at similar levels to 2015. Alaska mines produced roughly US$3.09 billion worth of minerals, excluding petroleum and coal, marking the seventh year straight that output from Alaska mines have topped US$3 billion. Gold and zinc account for roughly 80 percent of Alaska’s mineral productio...
A Swiss investment fund with ties to Russia-born billionaire Vladimir Iorich has put in a bid to buy the shuttered Mountain Pass rare earth element mine in California, raising red flags for U.S. lawmakers concerned about the United States’ dependence on foreign countries for REEs and other metals necessary to maintain the U.S. military’s high-tech arsenal. To help promote domestic production of these strategic metals and block foreign firms from buying rare earth mines on U.S....
During an era of partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has managed to garner broad support for an energy bill aimed at modernizing the way power is produced in the United States, including numerous provisions important to Alaska. The legislation, which was passed out of the U.S. Senate with an 85-12 vote, also contains provisions to improve access to the U.S. mineral resources supply by streamlining the minerals mine permitting process. "My...
With a significant deposit of heavy rare earths in the Southeast, the largest domestic graphite deposit in the Northwest, and vast potential in the 1,300-mile expanse between the two, Alaska is a viable alternative to importing many of the strategic and critical minerals vital to national security, green energy and modern technology. "The State of Alaska is blessed with vast mineral potential on its lands," Alaska Department of Natural Resources Deputy Commissioner Ed Fogels t...
The United States is richly endowed with a broad range of metals and minerals critical to national security, green energy and modern technology but is often overly-reliant on foreign sources for these same commodities. This was the resounding message from miners, manufacturers, regulators and analysts who testified on U.S. Senate Bill 883, "The American Mineral Security Act of 2015." Introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, S.883 aims to reduce the United States' heavy...
Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, April 22 introduced the "National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2015," which is intended to address American dependence on foreign minerals and to enable the United States to more efficiently develop its own mineral supplies. "It's not hyperbole to say our national defense and way of life depend on mineral production," said Amodei. "From military technology, such as aircraft and missiles used by service men and women to defend...
The Governor has stripped the state's Public Access Assertion and Defense Unit from the fiscal 2015 budget, potentially jeopardizing several programs critical to resources development in Alaska. Access to remote locations has long been a critical issue, first due to a lack of infrastructure, then due to the manpower demands of two World Wars in the Twentieth Century. Ultimately, as metals prices began to build, and funding for exploration became available, vast treasures were...
