Western Rare Earths Prepares to Deliver Critical Minerals for US Initiatives
Western Rare Earths (WRE) is beginning development of Critical Minerals mining projects in Arizona and Wyoming. Critical Minerals are just that-critical-especially for technology companies recently targeted to be cut off from their Chinese supply chain. The same is true for Green Tech industries; electric vehicles, wind turbines and fuel cells all require Critical Minerals. The most critical may be those in the Rare Earths Elements (REE) supply chain. WRE's parent company, American Rare Earths Limited (traded on the ASX as ARR), is looking to collaborate with US investors in support of WRE's efforts to deliver inputs for a reduced carbon future and less dependence on China. Notably, just to meet the production projections of electric vehicle manufacturers, the REE mining industry must double production by 2030.
WRE CEO, Marty Weems, considers it most advantageous that Joe Biden is emerging as the winner of the US Presidential election. Mr. Biden has put forth a $2T USD Clean Energy Spending Plan and has signaled support for domestic REE and Critical Minerals mining as recently as two weeks prior to the election which echoes his party's position on addressing the Climate Crisis and boosting Critical Minerals production.
Today WRE published a JORC 2012 compliant Technical Report on its La Paz Rare Earth (LPRE) project in Arizona. In the report, recently-appointed Chief Technical Consultant, Mr. Jim Guilinger, a leading Critical Minerals exploration expert, has provided new insights to the LPRE project.
Highlights of today's announcements include:
- The La Paz County project has claim control of more than 5,100 acres, yet the current defined resource sits within only 525 of those acres; leaving room to expand as WRE looks to onshore hundreds of jobs into a high poverty area.
- The company's leadership plans to produce a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) in the second half of 2021, requiring further surface sampling, metallurgical testing, additional sample drilling, plus planning the mine and related processing.
- The topography lends itself to increase the resource when WRE completes drilling to double the previous depth.
- In addition to WRE's resource of the Critical Minerals known as REE, of which there is only one producer in the USA, WRE has located Scandium at the LPRE project which can alloy with Aluminum to reduce the weight of vehicle or airplane frames by as much as 30%. In 2021, WRE expects to be able to upgrade the current REE resource size and separately establish a maiden resource for Scandium, thus, dramatically improving the value potential of the project.
- WRE is poised to collaborate with leading US universities and national laboratories on cutting-edge new processes that will be more environmentally sustainable. Committed to Responsible Mining practices, WRE has set the goal to build the first carbon negative mine in North America.
- WRE recently accepted an exclusive invitation from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a major university for WRE to join their application for up to $1.5M USD in Department of Energy funding for processing research on WRE feedstocks. This work could advance sustainable bio-tech processing that may be up to 40% more efficient than traditional solvent processing. This funding opportunity is via the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) to prove commercial viability of promising new technology deemed important to US National interests in partnership with private industry.
Marty Weems, CEO of Western Rare Earths, comments "We are energized to develop the La Paz Project further, along with our Wyoming project. We continue good progress with an upcoming drilling campaign and several high efficiency processing paths to explore under the guidance of world-class technical experts. There is plenty of work to do and high priority opportunities upon which we are laser focused to execute. We are honored and humbled to have the opportunity to collaborate with the prestigious Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on their TCF funding application to the DOE."
American Rare Earths Limited | https://americanrareearths.com.au
