AES3- Commerce (Blue River), James Bay & Aley are good Niobium projects in tough locations! That doesn't mean they won't get completed just tougher road to hoe. (Permits, Enviromental, F.S. etc... might be years off. Are they still constructing haul roads? or do they have all weather roads in Place? AES3- (I wanted to get an idea of the potential for the Elk Creek Mine compared to other World-Class Projects!) Please see the following commentary in response by Jim Sims:
5/27/2022 -How Does Niocorp's Elk Creek Project compare to other "World Class Projects?" It is a bit tricky to compare rare earth projects on an apples-to-apples basis, which is why we chose to limit the comparison of our Elk Creek resource to other REE projects in the U.S. There are several reasons why. For one, there are several different legal systems that determine how a project can measure and disclose aspects of its mineral resource and/or reserve. For public companies that are SEC-reporting entities (such as NioCorp), the SK1300 standard must be followed. For public companies regulated by Canadian authorities (also such as NioCorp), there is the National Instrument 43-101 disclosure standard. In Australia, there is the JORC standard. Each of these systems differ in what they allow, or don't allow, in terms of public disclosure of mineral resources and reserves. This can lead to 'apples-to-oranges' comparisons among projects. Another challenge in making such comparisons is the mineralization of an REE project. Some projects can show a high ore grade of rare earths, but the mineralization of the ore is something that is very difficult to process. For example, rare earth projects based on silicate-based minerals -- such as eudialyte -- are extraordinarily difficult to economically process in order to pull the REEs out and separate them. Others can contain relatively high levels of other impurities, such as naturally occurring radioactive elements, that can increase the cost of processing. A high ore grade doesn't mean a lot if the REE mineralization isn't amenable to processing that is technically or economically infeasible. This is why only a small handful of the more than 200 REE-containing minerals have ever been successfully processed economically at commercial scale. (The two primary REE-containing minerals in the Elk Creek Project, bastnasite and monazite, are among those that have been successfully processed for decades). Rare earth resources also differ in terms of the relative distribution of individual REEs in the host mineral. Some may have a relatively high ore grade but also have high percentages of less valuable REEs, such as cerium or lanthanum or yttrium. Others have lower ore grades but their REE mineralization is skewed more favorably to higher-value REEs, such as the magnetics neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium which are used in NdFeB magnets. There are several other REEs that are also magnetic, such as samarium, but those are of lower value. Another way that REE projects are compared to one another is through a so-called “basket price.” This is a particularly misleading way of valuing a rare earth play, in my opinion, because a project’s ‘basket price’ assigns a dollar value to the individual REEs in the ore, multiplying total tonnes of each REE by current market price for that REE, and combines them all together. This assumes that a project will produce each and every one of the REEs in the ‘basket’ (which is almost never the case). It also ignores the enormous CAPEX and OPEX required to produce 14 or so individual REEs.
There are yet other factors that help determine the viability of a potential rare earth project. ~Some projects are aimed at only producing rare earths. That means that they are relatively riskier investments than projects that are designed to produce multiple products in addition to rare earths.
~Some projects that are relatively large in size, have high ore grades, and are comprised of processable minerals -- but they are located in places that make mining and processing difficult or very expensive. I can think of a few projects that are touted as attractive deposits but are located near or above the Arctic Circle, which generally makes mining more costly.
~ Others are located in places where there local residents, such as First Nations communities in Canada or anywhere in Greenland, can readily block a project from moving to commercial operation. Still others are in countries where local governments are less stable than in the U.S., or are simply prone to corruption, which exposes the project to high country risk.
~Many REE projects are proposed by teams that have no experience in commercially processing REEs. They tend to gloss over that fact. Knowing what I know about the challenges of producing separated, high-purity REEs, this is one of the most important factors I consider when I look at REE projects. But that is just my opinion.
A more useful comparison strategy for investors is to look at rare earth projects through multiple lenses, such as those I describe above. It is not easy to do this if one doesn’t have a pretty deep understanding of the REE industry and the challenges of successfully making these strategic metals.
Having said all of that, it’s clear that our Elk Creek carbonatite is very large and similar in total contained rare earths to some of the largest known rare earth resources in the world, including the Araxa carbonatite in Brazil and the St. Honore carbonatite in Quebec. Jim Sims
Form your own opinions & conclusions above: IMHO- AES3: Niocorp is years ahead. Could The projects above be built? "Sure", but only after they get a lot more done! Niocorps Elk Creek mine is A Highly De-Risked Project! ~It features the highest-grade primary Niobium resource in North America, and the only such resource under development in the U.S. ~It offers unique value in that it is expected to emerge as one of the world’s largest Scandium producers. ~The Project has a positive Revised 2022 Feasibility Study completed. With Final 2023 F.S. included viable REE's & upgraded recoveries of Niobium & Titanium T.B.D.! https://gx0d43.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/NioCorp_June-2022_NI_43-101_Technical_Report.pdf ~*****All major local, state, and federal permits required to launch construction have now been obtained. "HUGE"! ~The Project enjoys strong local support in Nebraska. ~75% of the Project’s primary product – Ferroniobium — is already under contract over the first 10 years of production. ~Approximately 10% of the Project’s expected production of Scandium over the first 10 years of production has been placed under a commercial sales contract. ~In-principle eligibility from the German Government loan guarantee program has been secured.
