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USA Rare Earth Commends Bipartisan Bill Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to Encourage Domestic Rare Earth Production

SmallCaps Daily September 2, 2020

343 6 minutes read

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CEO: “Growing
Bipartisan Consensus that U.S. Dependence of Foreign-Sourced Rare Earths Poses
Serious Risk to U.S. Economy and National Security”

USA Rare Earth’s Round
Top Project & Mine-to-Magnet Strategy Aligns with Bipartisan Consensus

New York, NY – (NewMediaWire) – September 1, 2020 – USA Rare Earth, LLC, the funding and
development partner of the Round Top Heavy Rare Earth and Critical Minerals
Project in West Texas together with Texas Mineral Resources Corp. (OTCQB:
TMRC), commends the introduction of the RARE Act – Reclaiming American Rare
Earths Act — a bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives
today by Congressmen Lance Gooden (R-TX) and Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX). The
House bill is patterned after the ORE Act, introduced in May 2020 by Senator
Ted Cruz (R-TX). Both Senate and House bills create a comprehensive tax
incentive program to encourage investment in U.S.-based rare earth and critical
mineral production, from mining, reclamation and recycling through processing
and advanced materials production, along with a grant program for demonstration
projects developing primary mining projects for the rare earths and critical
minerals, as well as “secondary recovery” projects, recovering the materials
from legacy mine waste and eWaste. Full text of the Gooden press release
can be found here – https://gooden.house.gov/RAREAct.
A copy of the RARE Act bill can be found here – https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pf1ssjoc2puwgoc/AABe3YiByosgJ0Uw5oC6aScua?dl=0

The Gooden-Gonzalez
bill was introduced with bipartisan support led by the Texas house delegation,
including Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Congressmen Will Hurd (R-TX), Roger
Williams (R-TX), Pete Olson (R-TX ) and Bill Flores (R-TX). Additional
cosponsors are expected as the bill is formally filed.

“Ending our
dependence on China starts today,” said Congressman Gonzalez. “The RARE Act
will allow the United States to develop a reliable domestic supply of critical
minerals and rare earth elements and eliminate this pressure point that could
have lasting impacts on our national security and most importantly, our way of
life.”

“A reliable supply of
these materials is essential to American economic and security interests. We
shouldn’t have to rely on the Chinese Communist Party for our
critical military and communications technology,” said Congressman Gooden.
“Our future technological capacity will depend on our ability to cultivate an
economic environment that is favorable to robust domestic production of
these resources. By decreasing our dependence on China, the RARE Act
would strengthen our national security, spur American innovation, grow our
economy, and ensure the United States has the resource independence required to
cement our leadership in technologies that define the 21st century.”

“Currently, China
produces over 80 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, used in everything
from cell phones to advanced weapon systems, which is why the U.S. must
increase our domestic production and loosen our dependence on buying them from
China,” said Congressman Will Hurd, whose TX-23 District is home to the Round
Top deposit. “The RARE Act is a major step towards re-establishing a U.S.
critical minerals supply chain, which will in turn stimulate economic
activity in Texas and around the nation, ensure we are prepared for future
technologies, and reduce threats to our national security.”

Senator Cruz
commented: “Our dependence on China for access to rare earth elements is deeply
troubling and endangers our ability as a nation to manufacture defense
technologies and support our military. We must take an ‘all of the above’
approach to ensuring the entire supply chain for rare earth elements and
critical minerals is located in the United States….”

The RARE Act, like
Senator Cruz’s ORE Act, identifies a list of Critical Minerals including
lithium, cobalt, graphite and manganese as well as all 17 of the Rare
Earths. The introduction of the RARE Act follows the recent launch of The
House Critical Materials Caucus announced on July 24, 2020, with Congressmen
Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) as co-chairs.

Bi-Partisan Consensus

“At a time when
political partisanship touches nearly every public issue, what we see in the
Gooden-Gonzales bill — and in the recent formation of the House Critical
Materials Caucus — is the growing bipartisan consensus that U.S. dependence on
foreign-sourced rare earths and other critical minerals poses serious risk to
the U.S. economy and national security. Rare earths and critical minerals are
the backbone of any economy reliant on manufacturing; be it defense
applications, medical equipment, electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and
renewable energy. Billions of dollars’ worth of rare earths translates
into trillions of dollars of finished goods and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
China has understood this for a long time, and as a result have solidified
their stranglehold of the critical minerals supply chain,” said Pini Althaus,
CEO of USA Rare Earth.

“On this issue of
national importance, it’s significant that Texas leads the way. Our Round
Top deposit contains $22 billion of materials, including a significant amount
of rare earths, lithium and tech metals. The Gooden-Gonzales bill will
facilitate projects like Round Top and other domestic projects in ensuring US
independence from China, and strengthen our economy and national security,”
noted Mr. Althaus.

USA Rare Earth’s Round
Top Heavy Rare Earth & Critical Minerals Project, located in Sierra Blanca,
Texas, anchors the Company’s mine-to-magnet rare earth supply chain solution.
In June 2020, USA Rare Earth opened its rare earth and critical minerals
pilot development plant in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, where it is optimizing
recoveries of specific rare earths as well as non-REE Critical Minerals,
including lithium. In April 2020, USA Rare Earth purchased the neo magnet
manufacturing plant formerly owned by Hitachi in North Carolina. The
Company is reviewing site options in order to recommission the permanent magnet
manufacturing facility.

While the magnet plant
will ultimately be fed by rare earth feedstock originating at our Round Top
Mine, USA Rare Earth is in the process of re-commissioning its magnet facility
sooner, using recycled rare earth materials.

USA Rare Earth
announced on July 16, 2020 that it is working with GeoMega Resources of Canada
to integrate material recycling into the magnet production process, and
subsequently pledged in to power its Round Top operations with 100% renewable
energy.

Previously, the White
House CEQ approved and advanced Texas governor Greg Abbott’s request to
designate the Round Top project as a “High Priority Infrastructure
Project” as part of Executive Order 13766, signed by President Trump
on January 24, 2017. The Order was focused on projects that are deemed
a “high priority to the nation”.

Heavy Rare Earths and
5G Networks

On May 13, 2020, the
U.S. Government extended its ban on companies working with or relying on
equipment manufactured by Huawei through May 2021. The UK followed suit on
July 14, 2020 and other countries have implemented the same policy.
Building out a U.S. 5G network will require reliable access to the specific
Heavy Rare Earths used as fiber laser dopants, including erbium, thulium and
ytterbium. Heavy Rare Earths account for more than 70% of the Round Top
rare earth deposit, including the largest concentrations of erbium, thulium and
ytterbium outside of south China.

Currently, according
to the annual USGS Mineral Commodity Summary, the U.S. produces no rare earth
oxides, while China is the world’s leading producer. In July 2019,
President Trump issued a series of Presidential Determinations under the
Defense Production Act’s Title III provision, designating all aspects of the
rare earth supply chain as essential to the national economy and national
security.

Rare earths are
essential elements in every advanced weapons platform and every defense domain,
from guidance and control, precision targeting, and directed energy weapons to
communications and power provision. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R41744.pdf

About USA Rare Earth,
LLC

USA Rare Earth, LLC
has an option to earn and acquire an 80% interest in, and is the operator of,
the Round Top Heavy Rare Earth and Critical Minerals Project located in
Hudspeth County, West Texas from Texas Mineral Resources Corp. (TMRC: OTCQB).

As much as 60% of
revenues are expected to be from lithium for electric vehicle batteries and
power storage systems, and neo magnet rare earths used in electric motors, wind
turbines and a wide range of consumer goods.

The Preliminary
Economic Assessment (dated August 16, 2019) projects a pre tax net present
value using a 10% discount rate of $1.56 billion based on a 20-year mine plan
that is only 13% of the identified measured, indicated and inferred
resources. The PEA estimates an internal rate of return of 70% and
average annual net revenues of $395 million a year after average royalties of
$26 million a year payable to the State of Texas. Based on the cost estimates
set forth in the PEA, Round Top would be one of the lowest-cost rare earth
producers, and one of the lowest cost lithium producers in the world. The
Round Top Deposit hosts 16 of the 17 rare earth elements, plus other high-value
tech minerals (including lithium) and is well located to serve the US internal
demand. In excess of 60% of materials at Round Top will be used directly in
green or renewable energy technologies. Round Top contains 13 of the 35 minerals
deemed “critical” by the Department of the Interior and contains critical
elements required by the United States, both for national defense and industry.
For more information about USA Rare Earth, visit www.usarareearth.com.