The Steenkampskraal (SKK) rare earth deposit in the Western Cape, Africa.
The U.S. Department of Defense will provide $30 million in funding to Lynas Corp (Australia) to build a rare earth processing plant in Texas to reduce dependence on China.
The plant will be able to process light rare earth elements (LREEs), which are widely used in consumer electronics such as cell phones and electric car engines, but are also critical to the production of next-generation fighter jets and precision-guided missiles.
Linus, one of the few significant non-Chinese rare earth miners, is not the first Time it has received federal funding for a U.S. project. Last year, the company partnered with Texas-based Blue Line Corp. in an agreement with the Pentagon to build a plant for the separation of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs), which are used in the manufacture of specialized military weapons systems.
Both plants will be built in Hondo, Texas, about 45 miles west of San Antonio. Linus said the facilities, when operational, will be able to produce a quarter of the world’s rare earth needs.
The U.S. was the global leader in rare earth production from the 1960s to the 1980s, and now relies almost entirely on Chinese imports for rare earth materials. Seeing rare earth elements as a strategic resource that could be used to its advantage in negotiations, the Chinese Communist government has spent decades moving the U.S. rare earth industry to China, taking advantage of low labor costs and the absence of environmental standards.
This reliance on Chinese rare earth minerals has raised serious concerns as the U.S. and the world focus on responding to the Communist virus (Wuhan pneumonia) Epidemic. in October 2020, the Chinese Communist Party said it would stop supplying rare earths to U.S. defense manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin, citing its long history of selling defense weapons to Taiwan. Lockheed Martin is leading an industrial team developing and producing the F-35 fighter jet.
“At a time when demand for rare earth materials continues to grow, the COVID-19 pandemic exposes the risks of single sourcing of critical materials within a global supply chain,” said Amanda Lacaze, CEO of Linus, in a statement.
Amanda Rakatz said her company is the only non-Chinese commercial producer of separated rare earth products to the global market.
“The Texas facility, will ensure a secure domestic source of high quality separated rare earth materials in the United States. This secure supply will provide an important foundation for the manufacture and renewal of specialty metals and permanent magnets downstream in North America.” She said.
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