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

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 metric tons of total rare earth oxides – 14 lanthanide elements, yttrium, and scandium – plus 1.05 metric tons of inferred resource with 6,979 metric tons of total rare earth oxides.

In addition to rare earths, this Southeast Alaska deposit hosts appreciable amounts of niobium, zirconium, beryllium, hafnium, titanium dioxide, and vanadium – all considered critical to the U.S.

A five-week field program now underway at Bokan is focused on upgrading a portion of the current resource to the measured category and collecting a roughly 50-metric-ton bulk sample to support a mill flowsheet pilot-scale testing program as part of a PFS.

This work is being led by Aurora Geosciences Alaska General Manager Jim Robinson, who has been involved with Ucore's exploration at Bokan for more than a decade.

"Jim Robinson and his team have put together a mineral resource upgrade program for 2022 that will enable us to finalize our exploration efforts towards developing the Bokan Project as we respond to Western electrification demands and the associated need for rare earth critical metals," said Ucore Rare Metals Vice President and COO Mike Schrider.

The mineral concentrate produced from the 2022 bulk sample material during the pilot-scale testing will be processed through a demonstration plant being developed at Ucore's RapidSX Commercialization and Development Facility in Ontario.

RapidSX – which is basically a modernization and technological upgrade to the conventional solvent extraction technique that has been the standard for separating rare earths for more than 40 years – is the separation technology being installed at the Alaska Strategic Metals Complex Ucore is planning to build near the Southeast Alaska port town of Ketchikan.

"Continued execution of the company's long-term Bokan Mountain development plans, coupled with our near-term plan to construct the Alaska SMC 35-miles to the northeast of Bokan in Ketchikan, represents a unique opportunity for Ucore, the communities of Southeast Alaska and the State of Alaska," Schrider added.

Further details on the development of RapidSX for the Alaska SMC and other applications can be read at Ucore regroups and advances Alaska SMC and Testing confirms Ucore rare earths tech in the April 22 and April 29, 2022 editions of North of 60 Mining News, respectively.

The development of a mine at Bokan and the nearby Alaska SMC are part of Ucore's strategy to develop a North American rare earth elements supply chain that is particularly focused on the REEs needed for the magnets going into electric vehicle motors.

While not high-grade overall, the Dotson Ridge deposit at Bokan is particularly enriched in heavy rare earth elements, including the terbium and dysprosium oxides often used in the powerful permanent magnets in EV synchronous motors.

As a result of the rapid transition to electric mobility, over the past two years the price of terbium has rocketed from US$700 per kilogram to US$3,978/kg, and dysprosium has climbed from US$348/kg to US$641/kg.

With global EV sales forecast to climb to around 30 million per year by 2030 and more than 80 million per year by 2040, the demand for these magnet rare earths is only expected to increase over the next two decades.

Ucore Rare Metals Inc.

Ucore envisions a complete North American rare earths supply chain that begins with a mine at Bokan Mountain feeding mixed rare earths to its Alaska Strategic Metals Complex that will utilize RapidSX technology to produce the individual rare earth elements needed by the growing electric vehicle sector.

"As automakers shift to electrification, a totally new metallic supply chain must be created," said Ucore Rare Metals Chairman and CEO Pat Ryan. "The historical automotive business was vertically integrated with rubber plants in South America to an array of steel manufacturing plants as a key part of their production strategy. Today automakers from Ford to GM to VW realize that controlling source raw materials right back to the mine could determine how many electric vehicles they will be able to make and at what cost. The further development of the Bokan Mountain Complex for long term security of rare earth oxides used in powerful electric motors presents an opportunity for deep integration of Western supply chains."

It also provides an opportunity for Alaska to become a valuable link in the global EV supply chain.

"Working together as a team and with our stakeholders, we can help lead the United States' concerted effort to establish an independent REE supply chain to support the transformation to EVs and renewable energy sources and ensure that high-paying family-wage jobs are generated and maintained in Southeast Alaska for decades to come," said Schrider.

A newly upgraded resource calculation based on the current trenching and sampling program at Bokan Mountain is expected to be completed later this year.

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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