Big potential positive for UREE. UREE is said to have major Thorium holdings also.
RARE EARTHS:
Blunt amendment to defense bill looks to spur domestic production, create cooperative
Manuel Quiñones, E&E reporter
Published: Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt is floating a measure to promote the domestic production of rare earth elements as part of the ongoing Defense Department funding debate.
Blunt's amendment to the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, Senate Amendment 2508, is different from various other measures introduced in both the House and Senate over the past several years to address Chinese dominance in mining and production.
The legislation focuses on so-called heavy rare earths because of their atomic signature. They are among the most coveted and difficult to access and among the most important for military capabilities.
Blunt's amendment would create a federally chartered rare earth cooperative to spread the financial risk and environmental due diligence of mining heavy rare earth elements.
The cooperative's board would be staffed with representatives from the Department of Defense, the U.S. Geological Survey and advocacy groups, among others.
The legislation also addresses thorium, a naturally occurring radioactive element found in heavy rare earth deposits, including Nova Scotia-based Ucore Rare Metals Inc.'s Bokan Mountain site in Alaska.
"Regulations regarding thorium represent a barrier to the development of a heavy rare earth industry that is based in the United States," the Blunt amendment says. A spokeswoman for the senator did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
The cooperative board set up by Blunt's amendment would be tasked with promoting the storage and use of thorium, including in energy production.
St. Louis-based consultant James Kennedy has long advocated for increasing the use of thorium from rare earth mining and processing, and has, according to his website, worked on legislation with former Missouri Sen. Kit Bond (R).
Kennedy boasts working with the Thorium Energy Alliance to "rationalize U.S. policy on rare earths, Thorium and energy because they are all linked."
It's unclear whether Senate leaders will allow a vote on Blunt's amendment, which is one of hundreds to the reauthorization of the defense measure. But its introduction signals the senator's intent to push the issue.
A broad compromise bill by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) includes measures to promote the domestic development of rare earths and associated activities (E&E Daily, Oct. 30).
It also includes a provision for the government, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to study the use of thorium in the nuclear fuel cycle.
Lawmakers in the House are also considering measures to promote the domestic production of rare earth elements. Earlier this year, it passed Nevada GOP Rep. Mark Amodei's H.R. 761 to set permitting timelines and litigation limits for hardrock mines on federal land.
But in a statement this year, Roger Ballentine, a renewable energy advocate and adviser for lobby group the Association for Rare Earth, urged lawmakers to go beyond mining reforms.
"Congress is being bombarded by statements suggesting that specific companies and mines are a panacea to solve supply chain problems or that sweeping changes to existing mining laws will actually result in supply chain security," he said. "I wish it were that simple."
The National Mining Association is on record supporting both the Amodei approach but also the compromise language from Murkowski and Wyden.
Despite the intense focus on the rare earths issue, Congress has yet to approve any major policy on the matter. The defense bill has, as a result, become an arena for policymaking.
The House version includes provisions for stockpiling some rare earth elements, recycling of important minerals and encouraging domestic production. The Senate version so far does not.
