A Utah-based mining company says it has discovered a massive deposit of rare earths and other critical minerals, calling it potentially “one of North America’s most significant” finds to date.
Ionic Mineral Technologies — also known as Ionic MT — revealed last week that assays from its fully permitted Silicon Ridge project in Utah confirmed it as a halloysite-hosted ion-adsorption clay (IAC) system, which, compared to the conventional “hard-rock” geological system, is easier to extract minerals from.
According to the company, IAC represents the same geological formation that supplies approximately 35-40% of China’s total rare earth production and over 70% of the world’s heavy rare earth elements.
Ionic MT characterized the deposit as an “IAC-Plus” profile, referring to the magmatically enriched grades of not only rare earths but also a suite of critical minerals including gallium, germanium, rubidium, cesium, scandium, lithium, vanadium, tungsten and niobium.
Andre Zeitoun, founder and CEO of Ionic MT, calls the discovery a “watershed moment” for America’s resource independence. “For the first time, we have a domestic, shovel-ready source for a full spectrum of critical minerals, all extractable with a faster, cleaner process than traditional hard rock mining and extraction,” he stated in a press release dated Dec. 12.
