Elk Creek

But as Fred Knapp reports, the long-awaited project still needs final approval.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Export-Import Bank Chair John Jovanovich were among those on hand at the still under construction NioCorp mine near Elk Creek, Nebraska.

The mine's intended to produce niobium used for strengthening steel and a host of other rare earth minerals, many currently sourced from China, that are vital for military and civilian purposes.

It's expected to cost $2 billion to build and would employ up to 500 people for its 40-year life.

If this isn't clear, go to the last section of this video for a longer explanation of the risks and biases and do not consume this content if you don't agree with everything said therein.

Moving on, the flagship project for Niocorp is the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project in southeast Nebraska specifically.

So it's about 100 kilometers southeast of Lincoln, 130 kilometers south of Omaha, and it's roughly five kilometers west of the village of Elk Creek itself.

The project is a buried carbon and time hosted polymetallic deposit.

So it's critical minerals and rare earths.

But I mean, CapEx there went to about a billion and a half, apparently, or allegedly after the effective engineering and some design changes and stuff like that.

And then the asset that you're running here inside NIO Corp is now at a similar stage as where Phoenix was.

So first of all, what really happened there at Mali Corp? And then more importantly to NIO shareholders, what's the lesson there? What are you personally going to do so that Elk Creek doesn't go through the same thing?

There hasn't been a novel rare earth discovery in the US in probably 40 years.

You think about the projects that have been around Elk Creek in Nebraska or Bear Lodge in Wyoming.

These have been known for many years and for a variety of reasons haven't been developed.

What we like the most about these projects is very shallow near surface mineralization.