HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Oct. 16, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ucore Rare Metals, Inc. (TSXV:UCU) (OTCQX:UURAF) (“Ucore” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that Advisory Board Member and former Army Senior Acquisition Executive Dean Popps has published an op-ed highlighting the criticality of developing a domestic supply of rare earth elements (REE) and the looming threat to the ability of the United States to win future wars without strategic near term action.
The U.S. military’s Achilles heel, Mr. Popps writes, will be its failure to develop a reliable and secure supply chain of REEs, which are the fundamental building blocks of American defense systems. In the op-ed, Popps notes that a supply of strategic materials such as REE are the foundation upon which future weapon systems development relies and a necessity to meet the Secretary of Defense’s mandate to ensure “overmatch” of any adversary.
Mr. Popps previously served as the US Army’s top procurement official as the Service Acquisition Executive (SAE) and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (Acting). He joined Ucore’s Advisory Board in August of this year.
“Former Secretary Popps’ insight and expertise in supply chain security has highlighted the growing threat of relying on foreign nations such as China for the American military’s most essential and critical materials,” said Jim McKenzie, President & CEO of Ucore. “Mr. Popps’ commentary has received significant attention since its Washington dateline on October 10th. We commend his strong editorial stance at such an important juncture in American international geo-military relations, both in East Asia and elsewhere. Ucore’s establishment of domestic REE separation capabilities fits hand in glove with the urgent need for an American military supply chain free of compromise.”
“In order for the United States to become self-sufficient in the supply of REE it is essential that critical ones of these, such as neodymium, dysprosium, europium, terbium, and yttrium, be produced in large quantities by green engineering/green chemistry procedures that will meet current environmental standards, avoid the use of organic solvents, and generate minimal waste,” said Steven R. Izatt, President and CEO of IBC. “IBC’s SuperLig® MRT is a commercial technology that meets these standards. The ability to separate and recover individual REE at high purity and in quantity from pregnant leach solution (“PLS”), as advocated by Former Secretary Popps, is available with MRT and should be employed as soon as possible at large scale to begin production of REE from domestic primary and secondary sources to provide a reliable domestic supply of REE for military and commercial use.”
“We’ve demonstrated the capability to separate the 16 individual REE, at greater than 99% purity and 99% recovery, from PLS derived from Bokan-Dotson Ridge REE ore,” continued Izatt. “Dysprosium, for example, has been separated from Bokan PLS in a pilot plant operation at the 99.99% level with 99% recovery. Together, IBC and Ucore are dedicated to the long-term supply of these critical metals to support the mission of ensuring the strength of the United States military.”
The op-ed can be located at https://scout.com/military/warrior/Article/Op-EdUS-Military-Needs-Rare-Earth-Elements-for-Future-Wars-108741011
About Ucore
Ucore Rare Metals is a development-phase company focused on rare metals resources, extraction and beneficiation technologies with near term potential for production, growth and scalability. On March 3, 2015, Ucore announced the development of a joint venture with IBC for the deployment of SuperLig® Molecular Recognition Technology for REE and multi-metallic tailings processing applications in North America and associated world markets. The Company has a 100% ownership stake in the Bokan project. On March 31, 2014, Ucore announced the unanimous support of the Alaska State Legislature for the investment of up to USD $145 Million in the Bokan project at the discretion of the Alaska Import Development and Export Agency (“AIDEA”).
For further information, please contact Mr. Jim McKenzie, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ucore Rare Metals Inc. at: +1 (902) 482-5214 or visit http://www.ucore.com.
About IBC
IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc. is an award-winning, green chemistry selective separations company based on innovative MRT products. IBC is headquartered in American Fork, Utah, with manufacturing facilities in Utah and Houston, Texas. IBC has supplied industrial, governmental and academic customers worldwide with environmentally friendly products, processes and services for over 29 years. IBC specializes in MRT, utilizing green chemistry to achieve highly selective separations of individual metal ions in complex matrices. Based on Nobel Prize-winning technology (1987), IBC’s proprietary products and processes are used worldwide by premier metals refining and mining companies. The Ucore-IBC alliance builds on IBC’s proven capabilities to develop, scale-up and commercialize selective separations systems for a number of diverse and complex applications.
Cautionary Notes
This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements”. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities, research and development timelines, and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Forward looking statements in this press release include that we may enter into a long-term supply partnership and offtake relationship and the possibility of an independent North American REE supply chain. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include exploitation and exploration successes or setbacks, research and develop successes or setbacks, continued availability of financing, that we may not be able to reach agreements, that the product may not be suitable for intended uses, and general economic, market or business conditions.
MRT is at advanced testing stages and has yet to be proven, at a commercial scale, for the separation of rare earth elements. The Company has not yet released an economic assessment on the use of MRT for the separation of rare earth elements and does not yet have any specific contracts for the processing of rare earths using MRT.
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