Jack Lifton on the biggest move by the US Federal Government in the rare earths space

“What has happened finally with the US government is that they have recognized the supply chain problem and that we have been too dependent on China for too many things. The two things that are mentioned the most inside the Federal government are pharmaceuticals and rare earths… Rare earths are very much on the radar of the US federal government. In fact, one of our senators, Senator Rubio of Florida is a champion in the US to revive the rare earth supply chain. It is very exciting and it is the biggest move in this commodity that I have seen from the US government.” States critical materials expert Jack Lifton, in an interview with InvestorIntel’s Tracy Weslosky.

Jack went on to say that we should look at the total rare earths supply chain and then try to make that domestic in North America (The US and Canada) or with closest allies like Australia. Jack continued, “The anchor of any supply chain is the mine, the source of the minerals. We have got several in North America and we have 2 or 3 close to production. In Australia, we have two in operation – Lynas and Northern Minerals. The next step is separating these materials. The mixed rare earths into individual rare earths that can be further processed into products that we actually use.”

Jack also said that there is no heavy rare earth separation operation outside of China and if we consider health and safety requirements of North America then Chinese materials will be unacceptable.

To access the complete interview, click here