The U.S. Department of Defense announced it had awarded $10 million to Elk Creek Resources Corporation (ECRC) to develop scandium mining.
ECRC, a subsidiary of NioCorp Developments, Ltd., is developing the country’s first polymetallic deposit targeting near-term production of scandium, niobium, titanium and other critical minerals.
Officials said the award support’s President Donald Trump’s executive order to facilitate domestic mineral production.
“Scandium alloys are increasingly replacing titanium alloy and legacy aluminum alloy components in DoD systems due to their superior lightweight, high-strength characteristics,” said Vic Ramdass, acting assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy. “Geological scarcity and limited production infrastructure drive scandium industrial shortages. Establishing a vertically integrated domestic supply chain for scandium alloy production enables multiple avenues for innovation in defense aerospace.”
The funding, made under the Defense Production Act, would enable ECRC to complete feasibility study-level engineering, perform additional reserve drilling and update the cost estimates for ECRC’s Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project. As part of the effort ECRZC will advance the integration of aluminum-scandium alloys into aerospace platforms in conjunction with a defense contractor.
Successful development of the Elk Creek project will allow ECRC to become one of the first U.S. producers of Scandium and will enhance critical DoD systems like advanced propulsion, net-gen energy systems and multiple structural components for aircraft programs, hypersonic weapons and future aircraft.
“The last recorded scandium mining in the United States occurred in 1969, with substantially all current scandium production, in any form, now occurring in China,” said William “Greg” Davis, acting director of the manufacturing capability expansion and investment prioritization directorate. “DPA Title III investments like this one are key for reducing the U.S. defense industrial base’s dependence on foreign sources for critical minerals.”