Well, this is good news.
The Wall Street Journal:
Ionic Mineral Technologies was mining the clay in Utah when it chanced upon what could be the critical mineral equivalent of a gold mine.
Ionic MT had leased the land as part of its business producing nanosilicon for lithium-ion batteries, which are used in electric vehicles. But the company told WSJ Pro Sustainable Business that what it found was a host of other minerals, in what it says may be the most significant critical mineral reserve in the U.S.
Ionic MT said it discovered high grades of 16 different types of minerals, everything from lithium to alumina, germanium, rubidium, cesium, vanadium and niobium at the site in Utah’s Silicon Ridge.
According to the WSJ, Ionic has met with the Trump administration, which has expressed “clear enthusiasm about our work and its potential national impact.”
As it should. According to the company, the deposit is made up of “a halloysite-hosted ion-adsorption clay,” which, as the WSJ helpfully explains, means “that it can be rich in minerals” and is “the same kind of geological formation that supplies a big chunk of China’s rare earth production.” The deposits ought to be easily accessible, reached through a soft clay surface.
The WSJ reports that the site is already permitted for mining. That is a major plus given the delays that permitting imposes on mining in this country. The infrastructure is all there, and the company will process the minerals at its manufacturing facility nearby.
China dominates the critical minerals market (most of the minerals mentioned above fall into that category) while supplying about 90 percent of the world’s rare earths (scandium, another mineral mentioned in the report, is a rare earth). The minerals are used in everything from semiconductors to defense. Given the Chinese choke hold in this area, the U.S. is involved in a race against time to boost the production of these minerals. The faster that Ionic can proceed, the better.