The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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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... Full story
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...
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... Full story
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... Full story
A coalition of 38 companies and organizations, representing a broad spectrum of America's economy, is urging lawmakers on Capitol Hill to dust off pending critical minerals legislation and send a version to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature. "Updating our geologic data, reducing delays in permitting, bolstering research, and encouraging efficient use can pay dividends for future generations," explains the group pressing for critical minerals legislation....
The United States Forest Service has given Ucore Rare Metals Inc. the green light to complete a field program that will generate the data engineers need to complete a plan of operations and feasibility study for the Bokan-Dotson Ridge rare earth element project on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. Ucore plans to deliver these advanced engineering studies to the U.S. Forest Service, providing the regulatory agency with the information to initiate a National Environmen...
An employment forecast published by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development in October pegged the state's mining sector job growth from 2010 to 2020 at 19 percent. That is second only to health care, at 31 percent, and outpacing the 12 percent average growth across all Alaska industries. Expansion of current operations coupled with prospects of building mines at the world-class Livengood and Donlin gold deposits were cited as drivers behind adding new miners t...
Two seminal events related to the Alaska mining industry occurred in the past month. First, in late June, Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. reported the commencement of production at it Kensington gold mine near Juneau. The mine has now joined the ranks of large-scale producers here in Alaska but only after lots of years and lots of dollars, capped by a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court! Hat's off to Coeur for its commitment to Alaska and for its desire to do this job right. Secondly,...
China, which mines the majority of the global supply of rare earth elements within its borders, has, over recent years, increasingly restricted its exports of the unique minerals to non-China-based production facilities. This trend has continued with a July announcement that the Far East country intends to slash its exports of the high-technology metals by an additional 72 percent. Rare earth minerals are made up of 17 elements including terbium, thulium and yttrium. They are...
Rare earth elements have become a hot topic among United States policymakers. The growing demand for the unique properties of these metals in "green energy" technology and military applications, coupled with China's monopoly on the rare earth market has lawmakers and the Pentagon investigating the need to stimulate domestic production, manufacture and stockpiling of these elements. A bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., in March has moved the rare earth conversa...
