Centennial company gets big boost in its plans to mine strategic minerals and metals in the U.S.
A Colorado-based company may be the nation's best hope of lessening our dependence on foreign countries for minerals and metals that are critical to our economy and national security.
NioCorp Developments, a company with less than 10 employees in Centennial, announced Monday that the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., a government agency that helps fund certain projects, is interested in potentially providing up to $800 million in financing for a first-of-its-kind project. It involves drilling 1,500 feet underground and building a 60 acre mine.
"It's basically farm country so you got corn and soybeans," says NioCorp CEO Mark Smith, who plans to turn farmland near Elk Creek, Nebraska, into the nation's first mining operation for three of the world's most critical minerals, including niobium. The steel alloy is used in cars, bridges, military vehicles and wind turbines, among other things, to make them stronger and lighter. Smith says it is also revolutionizing electric vehicle batteries.
"It allows a car to go 400 or 500 miles per charge. The battery will last 5 to 8 times longer than the current lithium ion technology and, the best news of all? You can charge this in less than 10 minutes."
Smith says the mine could supply half the niobium the U.S. needs. We import all of it now, along with scandium, which is a mineral that makes the aluminum used in planes, ships, and vehicles stronger and lighter.
"There's only 20 to 25 tons of that material produced in the entire world today, so one truckload," says Smith. "We're going produce 5 truckloads."
That is about 100 tons of scandium a year.
The mine will also produce titanium and rare earth metals. Titanium is vital to the military and yet it's produced primarily by Russia. Rare earth metals are essential to everything from cellphones to EVs and yet it's imported from China.
Smith says NioCorp has been laying the groundwork for the mining project for nearly 10 years.
"We have all of our permits in place. We have our technical feasibility study done. We've done all the drilling to define the mineral resources."
He says the company will know in the next 6-9 months if the Export-Import bank's financing will come through. It will take about 3 years, he says, to build the mine, which will employ 400-500 workers. NioCorp also plans to open a manufacturing facility with the mine to convert the minerals and metals into useable products like magnets.
Smith says, NioCorp already has buyers lined up for the niobium and scandium.
"We have a ways to go but the good news is people are starting to see this and are taking steps to make those changes. We've been preaching this for a long time without an audience. (Now) we have an audience."