... "The US Department of Defense (DOD) recently signed a contract with Ucore Rare Metals Inc (TSXV: UCU). The DOD is assessing competitive domestic suppliers of neodymium-iron-boron (or ‘neo’) magnets and equivalents from the raw supply to the finished product. The DOD’s concern is that the US national security is vulnerable to Chinese dominance in REE production. The DOD is keen on reliability of supply, which means that it wants to source from potential producers with decades of yield, high grade mineralization and relatively low cost. Given its security sensitive role, the DOD also wants a supplier that faces few risks of disruption, technical, regulatory or environmental. There is a sense that the Defense Dept. has become more concerned with REE supply issues and it has taken the first steps toward restoring a US domestic supply of neo magnets. Neo magnets are used to make missile guidance systems, fuses for explosives and satellite communication devices, all of which, evidently, are important to US national security. Ucore can match all these requirements. The Company can boast having the largest NI 43-101 compliant Heavy rare earth (HREE include dysprosium, terbium, and yttrium) mine in North America and it is one of the best prospects for becoming a steady supplier of HREE thereby addressing the DOD’s long term requirements from the Bokan project. The military demands that there not be any cracks in the supply chain of such critical metals for the development of current and future defense technology.
REE are used in stealth radar evading technology, in targeting mechanisms and temperature resistant magnets and materials used in jet engines and aerofoil components in manned aircraft and increasingly in unmanned drone aircraft, which are playing an ever more important role in special operations. Missiles use samarium-cobalt (Sm-Co) magnets as do the ion plasma propulsion engines of future spacecraft. Neodymium-iron-boron magnets are able to withstand extremely high temperatures and are used in special munitions. Cerium and other REE are used to produce phosphors in lighting, radars and night vision equipment; even the ’humble’ smart-phone can become an invaluable piece of defense equipment, facilitating communication.
The long term sustainability of the Bokan Mountain is suggested by the unique ‘Solid Phase Separation’ process used to purify the mined rare earth elements; a technique that the Company claims is able to remove 99% of impurities. Ucore calls the process Solid Phase Extraction, or SPE technology, said to be cheaper and cleaner than the typical ‘Solvent Exchange’ approach used in China. SPE is unique to Ucore. Moreover, the Bokan – Dotson ridge project is located in southern Alaska about 140 km. north of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, with direct access to the Pacific Ocean, an advantageous location for the completion of production facilities and reducing mine construction costs – due to reduced transportation infrastructure needs. The Bokan project’s economic strength comes from the claimed 40% (by weight) concentration of the highly in demand HREE’s as disclosed in Ucore’s NI43-101 compliant resource estimate, released in March of 2011, which should doubtless put the Bokan deposit among the top contenders enabling the United States to expand its REE industry. Indeed, last October, DOD signed hired Ucore to further develop their metallurgical work at Bokan.
The main plans for the mine including the metallurgical studies will be included in the PEA due before the end of 2012. Ucore is also developing an REE deposit at the upper Kilolitna River using alluvial mining techniques such as gravity separation. Ucore said that assays from REE concentrate which HREE made up for 15-25% TREO. If the quality of the resource isn’t appetizing enough, the alluvial nature of the deposit give Ucore an additional advantage. The ore is deposited in sand, rocks located along a river. There is no need to dig deep or to leave giant pits behind; there aren’t even any issues with native populations to resolve – an important issue in mining intensive states of the Southwestern US – and Alaska is one of the most mining friendly areas in the world. ...
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