Ucore Rare Metals Inc (UURAF)

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Ucore Chairman Provides Strategic Update to Shareholders: Taking Action Today to Secure Tomorrow

2020-10-06 09:02 ET - News Release

Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 6, 2020) - Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSXV: UCU) (OTCQX: UURAF) ("Ucore" or the "Company") is pleased to provide the following message from Pat Ryan, Chairman & Interim CEO of Ucore:

To our Valued Shareholders,

The world is changing - and at an unprecedented pace. For Ucore's long-term shareholders and new supporters alike, this acceleration of change has generated opportunities that continue to evolve in our favour. Many of these opportunities are linked to emerging supply chain chaos, and the increasing instability of Chinese supply sources for metals of critical importance to the United States, known as the rare earth elements ("REEs").

In recent years, China has proven that it will do what is best for China, notwithstanding its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization. It is a philosophy made explicit in the 'Made in China 2025' national strategic plan, announced by the Chinese government in May 2015. By May 2019, Beijing's ongoing efforts to monopolize world REE supply chains significantly contributed to an official trade war with the United States, a conflict that continues to escalate with no immediate remedy in sight.

Many experts have recognized that REEs have quietly become an essential and non-substitutable component of nearly every new technology of the 21st Century. Transportation, defence, green energy, and health-care sectors are now heavily reliant upon REEs. Compounding this is the swift global transition to renewable energy solutions. The flight from fossil fuels is occurring faster than most understand or ever thought possible.

Geopolitical tensions, heightened by disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, have made REEs, more than ever, a white-hot issue for the United States and its allies - one that pertains to national, economic and technological security. Following a series of US Presidential Determinations concerning the REE supply chain in July of 2019, the crisis recently spurred a fundamental shift in US policy recognizing the vulnerabilities of a REE supply chain founded on the reliance of foreign adversaries - resulting in a critical minerals emergency declaration by the President of the United States[ii].

Numerous countries and enterprises are now racing to establish independent and secure REE supply chains. Ucore is one of a handful of companies that have been at the forefront of this race from the onset. From early on, our vision has been to disrupt the Chinese dominance of the US REE supply chain based on three guiding principles:

i) Secure & Sustainable Supply - Secure and develop a US source of heavy REEs ("HREEs");

ii) Discrete & Scalable Technology - Develop and/or acquire a green and efficient REE separation technology to meet Western world standards of safety and environmental compliance yet be able to compete head-to-head with low-cost Chinese operators; and

iii) Independent Domestic Infrastructure - Influence the North American REE infrastructure to support a US-centric REE supply chain.

To this end, Ucore has;

(i) secured one of the foremost US HREE assets - the Bokan-Dotson Ridge REE Project in Southeast Alaska (the "Bokan Project");

(ii) acquired a proprietary advanced separation and purification technology with the potential to expedite and streamline REE extraction methodologies - the RapidSX™ technology platform; and

(iii) cultivated an unprecedented relationship with the State of Alaska to develop a Rare Earth processing and supply hub on US soil with easy access to and from the rest of the Pacific Rim. With these foundational measures in mind, Ucore is now pleased to unfold our blueprint for US HREE independence:


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https://www.stockwatch.com/News/Item?bid=U-nf65328_136-U:UURAF-20201006&symbol=UURAF®ion=U