North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

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 SMC and represents just one of many envisioned partnerships as Ucore advances the establishment of a robust and independent rare earth supply chain for the United States and its allies - with an Alaskan-centric focus," said Ucore Rare Metals Vice President and COO Mike Schrider.

As the state of Alaska's regional economic development organization for Southeast Alaska, Southeast Conference has a mission "to undertake and support activities that promote strong economies, healthy communities, and a quality environment in Southeast Alaska."

And, as the federally designated economic development district for the region, Southeast Conference has access to federal grant funding for economic development activities.

Toward its mission, the organization is investigating the potential to develop an industrial complex that could host Ucore's SMC and other natural resource facilities.

"The Southeast Conference has a long history of partnering and stimulating economic development in Southeast Alaska," said Southeast Conference Executive Director Robert Venables. "This collaboration with Ucore as the anchor tenant for the Natural Resource Development Complex will stimulate complementary growth in the mineral sector and attract other types of resource extraction entities that will benefit from the direct and indirect business and physical infrastructure improvements created by the development of the Alaska SMC."

Selecting the site for the Natural Resource Development Complex will be based on what would work for its anchor client along with other Southeast Alaska economic development opportunities.

Ucore had previously been investigating Ketchikan for the Alaska SMC due to the port town's proximity to Ucore's Bokan Dotson Ridge rare earths project on Prince of Wales Island.

According to a 2019 resource calculation, Bokan hosts roughly 31,722 metric tons of rare earth oxides, 17,715 metric tons titanium dioxide, 9,001 metric tons zirconium, 2,205 metric tons niobium, 464 metric tons vanadium, 231 metric tons beryllium, and 178 metric tons hafnium in the indicated category.

While the Alaska SMC would initially process rare earths bearing feedstock from third-party suppliers in the United States and allied countries, Ucore plans to eventually separate rare earths and other critical minerals from a product produced at Bokan.

All of these metals are considered critical to the U.S. and would feed into renewable energy, electric vehicle, and other industrial supply chains the White House hopes to make more "resilient, diverse, and secure."

A natural resources complex near Ketchikan was something that was investigated by Ketchikan Gateway Borough, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, and others nearly a decade ago.

The idea was to develop such an industrial site on Gravina Island across a narrow channel from Ketchikan that could host a processing facility for Bokan and a milling facility for Niblack, a copper-gold-silver-zinc project also on Prince of Wales Island.

Wikimedia Commons 3.0

A view over the Southeast Alaska town of Ketchikan and Gravina Island, an area previously considered for an industrial park that would host a processing facility for Bokan Mountain and a mill to process ore from a future Niblack Mine.

According to preliminary studies completed at the time, the lower cost power and the ready access to a workforce from Ketchikan would more than offset the cost of barging the ore from Niblack to Gravina Island.

While Southeast Conference has not named any future tenants for the Natural Resource Development Complex it is investigating, the Niblack project, now being advanced by Blackwolf Copper and Gold Ltd., remains a likely candidate.

Ucore and Southeast Conference envision a co-funded joint venture opportunity to acquire and develop the complex and then Ucore entering into a long-term lease for an area to operate its planned Alaska SMC.

Under its Alaska2023 development plan, Ucore plans to have the Alaska SMC built and ready for commissioning before the end of 2023 and be producing individual rare earth oxides early in 2024.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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