Rare earths company cleared to drill in Idaho

U.S. Rare Earths announced that it had received federal approval to begin core sample drilling at its Sheep Creek rare earths project on the Idaho border, in western Montana.

The company plans to drill for rare earth minerals at the property, the Billings Gazette reported.

“They (rare earths) are crucial to solar and wind and electronic vehicle batteries,” said Dan McGroarty, Rare Earths president. “The big story is, right now 95 percent of the rare earths are coming out of China, and manufacturing in the United States depends on it.”

In 2010, China limited exports of rare earth minerals in retaliation for Japan’s claim to islands in the South China Sea.

That cut in supply prompted complaints to the World Trade Organization by the United States and other countries that also complained that by not exporting rare earth minerals, China was encouraging companies to relocate there.

After the 2010 dustup, interest in developing U.S. sources for rare earth minerals increased. The only active source for rare earth minerals in the United States is a Mountain Pass, CA mine operated by Molycorp.

If Rare Earths’ drilling samples reveal pay dirt, the company will follow up by drilling numerous other samples in a grid formation to determine the size of the resource.

McGroarty said Rare Earths is the doing the same work on the Idaho side of the border, as well.

What attracted the company to the area were the meticulous records of geologists indexing minerals of all kinds while exploring for precious metals, which were first mined in the region more than a century ago.

“It’s such a promising site,” McGroarty said. “The geology over eons has basically tipped up in a way that what it’s done is expose layers that would have been far below the surface.”

The initial drilling crew will consist of a couple geologists and a handful of drilling experts.