RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:anyone selling today are not to smartcuriously1 wrote: Agreed on the pumpers. But this appears to be a strategic government effort that will likely be several layers. Pilot plants need feedstock, feedstock has to be strategically reliable-US soil first, Can/Aus second. Ucore has the tie to AIDEA and AIDEA needed something to justify the loan--either undeniable economics or other money. Here is the other money. Government doesn't know which is the best way to go so it will fund some and build and adjust from there. They just need it to get started NOW.
I have no problem with that assessment you just presented. There is still a long road ahead for whoever wins over the Gov't funding.
But the reality is.....many have tried, but only a couple of Rare Earth companies were successful in separating and refining HREE's. Excluding the Chinese of course. And secondly, even though the Gov't is pushing for a domestic supply of HREE, I have no idea how they are going to quiet the loud voices of US environmentalists. For HREE is one of the dirtiest ores/elements/metals to produce. Even Lynas is at risk of getting kicked out of Malaysia. Austrialia won't even allow the refining on the very soil were the REE ore was extracted from.
Go figure! :)
And for the record if anyone asks, the US REE mining operation in California [Mountain Pass] was not able to 'economically' separate and refine their REE concentrate and therefore ship it to China for processing. And even if they could separate and refine, I doubt they would get operating approval for such a dirty environmental process.