Niocorp Developments Ltd (NB)

[The_Gman]

The hunt for scandium has started
August 18, 2024
https://thedeepdive.ca/the-hunt-for-scandium-has-started/

Scandium is the “reclusive” critical mineral.

High-grade deposits suitable for commercial mining are extremely rare, and extracting it as a by-product from other ores is similarly challenging.

The US currently produces no scandium domestically (either mined or recovered), nor has a stockpile.

This may all change with the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) recent proposal to finance up to US$800 million in NioCorp Developments Elk Creek critical minerals project in Nebraska. The deposit is one of the largest scandium deposits in the world, and would create North America’s only advanced materials manufacturing facility for producing scandium, niobium and titanium. And, in 2023, the company successfully demonstrated pilot-scale production of 1 kilogram of aluminum-scandium ingot.

Conclusion
The promise of a scandium “boom” is nothing new, with much debate over whether supply drives demand (or demand drives supply).

But now momentum finally appears to be shifting.

The energy transition and net-zero targets mean demand is fast-growing for light-weight, enhanced strength aluminium alloys across aerospace and electric vehicles, as well as alternative energy sources such as solid oxide fuel cells.

And the West’s search for secure supply chains is exacerbating the issue.

And supply is responding, with major investments in both scandium exploration and development.

Get ready for “reclusive” scandium’s coming out party.