Junior Rare Earth Miner Soars On State of Alaska Support

In the early nineties, the Chinese became aware of their abundance of rare earths and had the foresight to see the rising demand in high tech and clean energy applications.  Although rare earths were discovered  by Americans starting with the Manhattan Project and later advanced by General Motors, the Chinese completely co-opted the industry as mining and manufacturing were outsourced overseas in exchange for cheap Chinese labor and raw materials.

Twenty years later, the West is finally awakening that the loss of mining and manufacturing has led China to dominate the market which has had drastic repercussions in the loss of domestic manufacturing. Jobs have been lost.  The Chinese dominate close to all of the heavy rare earths most crucial for our latest military technologies, high tech and clean energy applications.

In order to get the heavy rare earths at a fair cost companies have to move manufacturing facilities to China.  This comes at a heavy cost as intellectual property may be compromised.  China’s rare earth strategy has led to major growth and lots of jobs.  Now the West must support their own domestic mines to have a secure and economic supply chain.

For weeks I alerted you to view a potential buypoint for Ucore Rare Metals (UURAF) which controls the heavy rare earth Bokan Deposit in Alaska at four year lows.  I believed the price would bottom out at $.20.  In fact it broke through that low for a day or two and then reversed higher.  That may have marked the major low.  Although mostly everyone gave up on Ucore, I did not.  The company made many technical advancements in 2013 on the highest grade heavy rare earth deposit in the United States.  They are working closely with the U.S. Department of Defense to advance this project.

I have been to the property in 2011 and saw the tens of millions of dollars of work that has advanced this asset to the feasibility stage.  I also was well aware of the local support from the State of Alaska as the Bokan Project has been vocally supported by the Governor and Senators.  Alaska has a great track record of financing mining projects from the famous Red Dog Mine to the Fort Knox Gold Mine.

Now only a few weeks later after publishing those premium reports, Ucore soars on news that Alaskan elected officials are proposing the financing of up to $145 million for the Bokan Heavy Rare Earth Project.  No other rare earth company I know of has been given the local support like Ucore has received from the State of Alaska.

Shareholders and management are very thankful to the state as the value of this asset should continue to soar on this historic and unprecedented local geopolitical support.  This is the first time that I have seen a state actually propose financial support to a rare earth mine.

A heavy rare earth project like this could be bring huge economic opportunities and jobs to Southeast Alaska and restore U.S. independence.  This may signify that Ucore has regained itself as the U.S. leader in heavy rare earth race.  Look for a bullish golden crossover after this historic and high volume technical breakout.

Disclosure: Author is long Ucore and Company is a website sponsor.