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American Rare Earths Inc. announced Sunday that its rare earth minerals project near Wheatland could require $456 million to develop the mine and begin production, but the initial project The small mining company, valued at about one-fifth of its size, still needs to raise capital.
Donald Swartz, CEO of American Rare Earths, told Cowboy State Daily that the investment will take shape over the next few years at the Halleck Creek mine site, recently renamed the Cowboy State Mine. He said that this is a realistic way to achieve high-quality production.
The company is still in the process of obtaining state permits to begin mining and build a processing plant on the Wheatland property, but that will likely be several years away.
Swartz said his company’s board recently recommended moving the project to the next stage of development. He said the initial stage would produce “moderate amounts of isolated rare earths within a project area that is scalable over time.”
The $456 million capital investment estimate, along with other cost estimates and economic projections for the development of the Halleck site in the Mount Overton area, as well as the value of minerals that could be mined over the next 30 years, included in the survey. .
He said production levels are expected to reach more than 64 million tonnes over the life of the mine.
The company previously reported that the Wyoming site could: Most abundant rare earth deposits There are an estimated 2.34 billion tons of rare earth minerals in the world.
“This is beyond our wildest dreams, and we only excavated about 25 percent of the property,” Swartz told Cowboy State Daily last month.
Expected private money
Importantly, Swartz said no government assistance would be needed to begin development, as is the case with other megaprojects in Arizona, where his company is headquartered, and Australia.
“We think we have the best chance of getting a path to production without requiring major government intervention,” he said.
American Rare Earths is the U.S. base of an Australian-based exploration company operating in Wyoming.
As examples announced last week, Swartz cited the U.S. Department of Energy’s recent plan to loan Canada-based Lithium Americas about $2.3 billion to build the Tucker Pass lithium project in Nevada; It cited a $550 million investment in rare earth projects in Australia.
The investment in lithium is one of the largest federal investments in mining history. The United States wants to expand domestic production of critical minerals needed for things like clean energy projects needed for battery-powered electric vehicles.
The bumper crop of rare earth minerals is the result of consumers hungry for the magnetic metals essential to the green transition to electric cars, wind turbines, consumer goods, robots and military drones, and the missiles and chips needed for advanced computing power.
To begin advancing the mining project, American Rare Earths recently raised $9 million to begin drilling wells to test the metallurgical properties of rare earths in the Halleck Creek area. did.
American Rare Earths, through its Wyoming Rare (USA) Inc. division, wants to mine and process these magnetic metals, specifically neodymium and praseodymium.
The company manages 367 mineral rights on 6,320 acres of state, federal and private lands throughout the Halleck Creek Project area near Wheatland, and owns Wyoming mineral leases on 1,844 acres of the project. We manage 4 cases.
Pat Maio It can be accessed at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
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