Energy Metal News – Approximately one year after signing Executive Order 14017 (E.O.), America’s Supply Chains, the US Federal Government has revisited the importance of domestic supplies of critical minerals, such as rare earth elements, fluorspar, lithium, cobalt and more for clean energy technologies such as batteries, electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar panels. Now US President Joe Biden has committed to meeting with industry executives to announce major investments in domestic production of key critical minerals, starting with a major investment in MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) and Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A, BRK-B), as well as partners of Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and General Motors Company (NYSE:GM). The moves signal serious momentum to securing domestic supplies of critical minerals, while also highlighting the promise of other projects on the go, such as the development of projects like the Lost Sheep Fluorspar Project, located in Delta, Utah, owned and operated by Ares Strategic Mining Inc. (CSE:ARS) (OTC:ARSMF).
While much of the media focus has been on EV materials like cobalt and lithium, within the USGS list’s Top 10 is fluorspar. Today, the USA only has one domestically producing mine for this often overlooked critical mineral—namely Ares’ Lost Sheep.
Ares Strategic Mining Inc. (CSE:ARS) (OTC:ARSMF) recently completed its multi-year drilling program planning for the company’s overall Utah Fluorspar Project. The program will stretch over multiple months, having identified over 160 drill targets, chasing a fluorspar anomaly pattern that’s been identified and mapped across 13km of Ares’ claims.
When compiled, this amalgamated information demonstrates a consistent trend across the whole Spor Mountain Range, all of which fall into Ares’ claim areas.
“The Spor Mountain is famous for its unusual and exotic accessory mineral associations part of its geological formations that we’re gradually discovering as we untap more about the project’s potential,” said James Walker, President and CEO of Ares. “The area is attracting a lot of attention from local operations, who are interested in both the minerals present at site, fluorspar, and other rare minerals, so we are fortunate to have staked the district and tied up the potential. The Ares geological team have done some excellent mapping and target identification over the recent months and have provided us with many years of fluorspar targets, which we will develop alongside our anticipated operation.”
Ares Strategic Mining is already announcing milestones from its Lost Sheep facility, as back in mid-December 2021, the fluorspar producer had shipped its lumps plant ahead of schedule. The large 3-storey facility will be the only one of its kind in North America.
China has already put export restrictions on the mineral, while fluorspar supply concerns have continued to rise for over a decade. According to a recent research report shared by Industrial IT, the Acid Grade Fluorspar Market is set to Witness Huge Growth by 2028. With this significant growth in the global fluorspar market due coming, it’s crucial that more domestic production is needed.
Fluorspar is essential in the production of a wide variety of fluorine-containing products including refrigerants, coatings, foam-blowing agents, and pharmaceutical intermediates.
Earlier this year, Ares Strategic Mining expanded beyond just the Lost Sheep Fluorspar Project, into an already large historically delineated fluorspar project in Kentucky, US.
The fluorspar producer also announced an agreement to develop the Campbell Croster Fluorspar Project, which comes with a historic resource (not yet 43-101 certified) of over 600,000 tons of high-quality fluorspar mineralisation—contained within one single contiguous fluorspar vein.
For another critical mineral, namely heavy rare earth elements, the latest White House statement highlighted a $35 million investment from the Department of Defense’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program to MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP), which followed up that the company will invest another $700 million and create more than 350 jobs in the magnet supply chain by 2024.
China currently controls 87% of the global permanent magnet market, which again are used in EV motors, defense systems, electronics, and wind turbines. MP has said it aims to begin processing rare earths in California by the end of the year, however didn’t comment ahead of the White House announcement.
Also in California, but for another critical mineral, Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A, BRK-B) has announced its plans to break ground this spring on a new facility in Imperial County to test sustainable ways to produce lithium from geothermal brines. Imperial Valley contains some of the largest deposits of lithium in the world.
This announcement coincides with the White House’s statement that the facility would be part of a multibillion-dollar investment in sustainable lithium production set for over the next five years. Once at scale, BHE Renewables facilities could produce 90,000 metric tons of lithium per year. Commercial scale production of battery grade lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate is expected by 2026.
"One of the single best locations, one of the largest geothermal reservoirs in the world is right at the Salton Sea," said Jonathan Weisgall, Vice President of Government Relations for Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is set to source lithium for EV batteries from Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR), which is gearing up to also extract geothermal brine lithium from Imperial County. The automaker became the first company to make a multi-million-dollar investment into CTR’s Hell’s Kitchen project, located near the Salton Sea.
The agreement predestines a significant portion of GM's future battery-grade lithium hydroxide and carbonate to come from the Hell's Kitchen development.
“The relationship between GM and CTR is expected to accelerate the adoption of lithium extraction methods that cause less impact to the environment,” said GM in a statement. “With the help of GM's investment, CTR's closed-loop, direct extraction process will recover lithium from geothermal brine.”
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) on the other hand is working with Redwood Materials and Volvo for collection and recycling of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries at Redwood’s Nevada based facilities to extract lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite.
“This new program with Redwood Materials will help Ford lead America’s transition to sustainable and carbon-neutral EV manufacturing and ultimately help make electric vehicles more environmentally responsible and affordable for our customers,” said Ford President and CEO Jim Farley. “I want to thank JB Straubel and the Redwood team for bringing their world-class technology and know-how to our joint effort.”
Article Source: https://energymetalnews.com/2021/03/05/this-company-is-bringing-essential-mining-back-to-the-u-s-fueled-by-government-action/
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