America has just one major rare earths mine, the MP Materials project at Mountain Pass in California’s Clark mountain range.It is a source of great concern and consternation for the Biden Administration, which has laid out tax incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act to prioritise using domestic US or free-trade aligned critical minerals in local manufacturing.American Rare Earths established a resource at its La Paz project in Arizona a couple years ago, currently boasting 170Mt of ore, where ARR is planning to grow its resource base to upwards of 1Bt.But the next cab off the rank is a maiden JORC 2012 resource estimate at the Halleck Creek project in Wyoming, a project with a globally significant exploration target of 1.01-1.27Bt of rare earth mineralised rocks.A resource is expected this quarter after recent drilling extended ARR’s mineralised rare earths zone at Halleck Creek by 50% this month, hitting rare earth bearing rocks to a depth of 150m.“These are outstanding results as previous core drilling had confirmed mineralisation to only 100m,” MD and CEO Chris Gibbs said.“Just as importantly, mineralisation is open at depth. These results further enhance our belief that the Halleck Creek district is one of the largest, rare earth deposits on a global scale. “It’s also shaping up to be a key strategic project for the US as it seeks to develop its own critical minerals supply chain to resource the renewable future and reduce dependence on China.” QUOTE from article in * today.Future looking brighter each day IMO
