The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Separation and processing are the master link of US supply chain. From tech devices such as smartphones and computer monitors to clean energy products like electric vehicles and wind turbines, household goods like vacuum cleaners and refrigerators, and military hardware such as F-35 fighters and communications equipment, rare earths have a critical role to play in nearly every facet of America's economy and security. The United States, however, currently relies on China for ne...
Projects, initiatives, and technology expand scandium supply chain security. While it may not have quite as strong a chemical bond to its adopted lanthanide siblings as they do each other, scandium does possess similar enough characteristics and is almost always found at the same geological gatherings (deposits) as the rest of its rare earth family. Named for the Latin word for Scandinavia, "Scandia," – as the mineral was thought to only dwell off the Nordic peninsula – sca...
An all-of-government strategy is beginning to unfold in the US. Over the first two years following the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. Department of Energy has invested billions of dollars into establishing a clean energy supply chain in the United States. These heavy investments, however, have neglected one vital link – the domestic mines needed to supply the processing facilities, battery plants, and other energy t...
Plucky prospectors, with a dash of spite, set out to prove the wealth of Alaska; despite expert opinions none existed at all. Nestled on Alaska's Prince of Wales Island, the Ross-Adams uranium mine tells a tale steeped in Cold War ambitions. Discovered in the 1950s and shuttered quietly by the 1970s, this historic site is one of many that perhaps invites a reexamination in the context of today's search for sustainable energy sources and offers a glimpse into America's...
HB122 would authorize AIDEA to issue up to $300 million in bonds and leverage federal funding for critical mineral infrastructure projects in Alaska. Home to 49 out of the 50 minerals deemed critical to the United States, Alaska has the potential to be a reliable domestic source of the mined materials vital to high-tech, clean energy, and national defense. America's Last Frontier, however, is often lacking when it comes to the infrastructure needed to fully unlock the state's...
Shenghe acquires ore stockpile that symbolized a shift away from China for REEs critical to North America's green energy and high-tech sectors. High-grade ore dug up from a small open pit at Vital Metal Ltd.'s Nechalacho project in the summer of 2021 marked the start of Canada's first rare earth elements mine and the first link in an REE supply chain that was envisioned to be completely independent of China. "The combination of our efforts clearly work together towards the...
Vital Metals CEO resigns after just 4 months; Ucore adds former Vital top executive to its growing team. With former Vital Metals Ltd. Managing Director Geoff Atkins joining the team at Ucore Rare Metals Inc. and John Dorward tendering his resignation as director and CEO of Vital, this week saw a carousel of executive changes at rare earths companies with ties to the North of 60 Mining area. Under Atkins' leadership, Vital transformed the Nechalacho deposit in Northwest...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska: Gathering together leaders, decision-makers, and experts toward the common goal of understanding the value of Alaska's mineral endowment and how to unlock it for America's net-zero emission goals, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management hosted a two-day workshop bringing attention to carbon management and critical minerals and how the Last Frontier will be a keystone in achieving the country's lofty ambition. Held at...
Less than three years after bringing its ambition to mine rare earth elements to Canada, Vital Metals Ltd. is rapidly establishing its presence on the world stage as one of few miners of rare earth minerals outside of China. In July 2021, the Australia-based company became the first to extract rare earth-rich material for commercial processing from the ground in Canada – a country known to host vast undeveloped quantities of the coveted resources. Vital Metals is also only t...
US invests heavily into developing domestic rare earth element processing plants Despite what their name suggests, rare earths are not all that scarce. An efficient and environmentally sound technology capable of separating this tightly bonded group into the 15 individual elements of innovation, however, is truly unique and the key to establishing a rare earths supply chain in North America. There are currently no commercial-scale rare earths separation facilities in North...
Magnet rare earths transform motion to energy; and energy to motion and music While all 15 of the rare earths have special properties that have been called magical, alchemistical, and futuristic, seven of these elements are imbued with a powerful magnetism that is hard to resist when it comes to creating a high-tech future powered by clean energy. The magnetic qualities of these rare earths – praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, and holmium – are...
With renewed interest in nuclear to generate zero-carbon electricity for the clean energy future, coupled with Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, the past-producing Ross-Adams uranium mine on Ucore Rare Metals Inc.'s Bokan Mountain project in Southeast Alaska has caught the attention of unnamed parties interested in this potential domestic source of nuclear fuel. While Ucore says it is entertaining the unsolicited offers to investigate Bokan's uranium potential, any efforts on t...
With its Alaska Strategic Metals Complex on pace for completion in 2024, Ucore Rare Metals Inc. has launched a trenching and bulk sampling program at Bokan Mountain that will provide the information needed for a prefeasibility study that details the plan for a mine at the rare earths project in Southeast Alaska. Located on Prince of Wales Island, the Dotson Ridge deposit at Ucore's Bokan Mountain project hosts 4.79 million metric tons of indicated resource containing 31,722...
Independent testing commissioned by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority demonstrates that Ucore Rare Metals Inc.'s RapidSX rare earth elements separation technology is in fact faster, cheaper, more efficient, and environmentally sound than the conventional mixer-settler solvent extraction method it was designed to replace. Fundamentally, RapidSX is a modernization and technological upgrade to the conventional solvent extraction technique that has been the st...
In preparation of bringing its Alaska Strategic Metals Complex online in 2024, Ucore Rare Metals Inc. has streamlined its management and technical teams and secured new feedstock for the future rare earths separation plant. To be developed near the Southeast Alaska port town of Ketchikan, the Alaska SMC is a processing facility that will do the hard work of separating rare earths into the individual elements that are used in a variety of high-tech applications. Though often...
When Vital Metals Ltd. purchased the rights to mine the mineral resources in the upper zones of the Nechalacho rare earth project from Avalon Rare Metals Inc. in 2019, the Australian junior hit the ground running. And the rest is history. Literally. In July, Vital Metals became the first company to produce rare earth minerals in Canada – a country known to host vast undeveloped quantities of this suite of coveted elements. Vital is also only the second company to mine rare e...
Innovation Metals Corp. Jan. 4 reported that the RapidSX rare earths and critical minerals separation technology it developed for use at Ucore Rare Metals Inc.'s planned Alaska Strategic Metals Complex (Alaska SMC) and other applications is on pace to be ready for commercial adoption and implementation via revenue-producing licensing agreements by the end of 2022. This includes the completion of a demonstration plant at its commercialization and development facility in...
Seeking economic and cultural prosperity for its more than 23,000 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian shareholders while also looking to provide even greater benefits for future generations, Sealaska takes a balanced approach to developing the resources growing above and stored beneath its lands in Southeast Alaska. This does not mean the Southeast Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) corporation shuns mining or other resource development in its region, a nearly 600-mile...
A recent agreement between Vital Metals Ltd. and Ucore Rare Metals Inc. marks a major milestone in establishing a complete North American rare earths supply chain with links in Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, and Alaska. Vital has already established Canada's only rare earths mine at its Nechalacho project in Northwest Territories and is building a processing facility in Saskatchewan to upgrade the high-grade ore into a midstream carbonated product with a mix of rare...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. Nov. 17 announced that the United States Forest Service has issued a one-year authorization for trenching and bulk sampling at the Bokan Mountain rare earths project in Southeast Alaska. Located on Prince of Wales Island, the Dotson Ridge deposit at Ucore's Bokan Mountain project hosts 4.79 million metric tons of indicated resource containing 31,722 metric tons of total rare earth oxides – 14 lanthanide elements, yttrium, and scandium – plus 1.05 met...
The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act brightens an otherwise gloomy outlook when it comes to federal policies that impact Alaska and its mining sector. "I believe this is truly historic for our state," Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said during a Nov. 17 address at the Alaska Resources Conference. While the massive infrastructure bill passage was chalked up as a political win for President Joe Biden, the billions of dollars to be invested into upgrading and...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. Oct. 7 announced that it has entered into a memorandum of agreement with Alaska's Southeast Conference for the evaluation and potential establishment of a Natural Resource Development Complex that would host Ucore's planned Alaska Strategic Metals Complex, a facility for processing rare earth elements and other critical minerals. "The establishment of the MOA between Ucore and Southeast Conference is an important moment in the development of the Alaska S...
From the advancements of technology during the Bronze Age to the computers and telecommunication systems of today's Big Data Era, tin has been critical to human progress for at least 5,500 years. Sometime around 3500 BC, Sumerians living in modern day Turkey and Iran discovered that mixing a little tin with copper created bronze, an alloy that produced much more durable weapons and tools than those cast from copper alone. This cutting-edge discovery offered a strategic and...
Roughly 38,000 metric tons of rare earth concentrates were produced from American soil during 2020, yet the United States remains 100% reliant on foreign countries for its supply of these 17 elements critical to our modern high-tech society – an apparent paradox that speaks to the complexities of these enigmatic metals. The irony of rare earth elements (REEs) begins with their name, which is at the same time a misnomer and accurate descriptor. "All the REEs except p...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. Aug. 11 announced that it has joined the National Mining Association, which advocates for United States mining to Congress, the White House, federal agencies, and others in Washington, D.C. Ucore's joining with the more than 250 other corporate and organization members of NMA coincides with its preparation to construct the Alaska Strategic Metals Complex rare earth element processing facility by the end of 2023. "Ucore's membership in the National...
