Mining company touts Bitterroot gallium deposits

by Michael Howell

Leading up to its anticipated submission of a Plan of Operations for mining Rare Earth Elements (REE) at its mining claims in the headwaters of the West Fork of the Bitterroot, U.S. Critical Materials recently accelerated its public relations campaign across mining industry websites by accentuating the potential gallium deposits found across the same 6,700 acres of claims.

Gallium is used for semiconductors, 5G technology, smartphones, satellite systems, critical photonics technologies, and especially current and next generation defense systems.

Much of the work in developing production of REE and other critical minerals is being driven and funded to a large degree by the U.S. government,  including such federal agencies as the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Bureau of Mines and the Department of Homeland Security.  Preliminary work by U.S. Critical Minerals at its Sheep Creek holdings has benefited from DOD grants as well as cooperation from Montana Tech and the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology. They were aided by the U.S G.S. which conducted laser equipped helicopter surveys to get an assessment of the underground rock formations in the area of their claims. 

The interest in gallium entered the spotlight when China recently embargoed the export of gallium. Gallium is consistently listed as the number-one supply risk related to national security, as the USA is 100% dependent on imported gallium, primarily from China.

Tim Moughon, director of the field intelligence directorate at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, recently spoke to mining sector representatives during a Dec. 8 presentation at the American Exploration & Mining Association annual meeting in Reno, Nevada. He is quoted by Shane Lasley of Metal Tech News in a December 13, 2024 article, saying ““Economic competitiveness is a national security issue. Our ability to maintain our way of life, our ability to maintain our position in the world, our ability to fund our physical security – all of these things are dependent on a strong and robust economy. The mining sector is critically important in this respect. Not only for the GDP output that the mining sector contributes, but even more importantly because of the key role it plays in providing those critical minerals, critical resources, for the defense industrial base, for the tech sector, and areas like that.” 

He told the group that market and geopolitical analysts believe that China’s restriction on exports of gallium, along with germanium and graphite, is likely a retaliatory strike in a technology trade war with the U.S. and other Western nations. 

Moughon concluded by saying, “If you want to partner with us, we would be delighted to do that and have a conversation to figure out how we can further the conversation so that both policymakers at the federal level and you within the sector are all armed with the right information to make the best decisions to advance our homeland security,” 

In a press release published by PRNewswire last Friday, James Hedrick, US Critical Materials President, and a 29-year former USGS and Bureau of Mines Rare Earth Commodity Specialist, said, “Not only is our gallium high grade, but we are also confident that we will be able to create a separation process that will be environmentally respectful. US Critical Materials prime gallium claims average over 300 ppm and go as high as 1370 ppm. Gallium can be separated profitably at 50 ppm. US Critical Materials looks forward to being the primary gallium producer in the United States.”  

Although there is currently one active REE mining operation in the United States, there are no processing facilities in North America. China, which has dominated the processing and separation of rare earths for decades, continues to account for about 85% of global capacity. So the processing and separation of critical minerals like gallium and rare earths is a key link in establishing domestic supply chains in the U.S.

But separating REE and gallium according to Metal Tech News is no easy matter,. “Simply adopting the solvent extraction rare earths separation method used in China, which was developed in the U.S. during the 1950s, is not considered commercially viable in North America due to its labor intensity and environmental footprint.”

US Critical Minerals is pinning its hopes, it appears, on somehow developing a more environmentally friendly way of processing the ore. Moving in this direction, the company announced in December 2023 that it had signed an agreement with Idaho National Laboratories (INL) to develop new rare earth processing methods including gallium separation.

“It is believed that cutting-edge technologies developed under this Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) could potentially provide environmentally responsible mining and processing to mitigate environmental concerns,” states the company.

“Our latest separation technologies target the energy critical materials and span the entire supply chain from mining to recycle/recovery,” Robert Fox, materials separation and analyses department manager at Idaho National Laboratory, told Metal Tech News in an email. “Our CRADA (cooperative research and development agreement) with US Critical Materials allows us to continue to develop our prowess and to expand our technological solutions to solve rare earth element (REE) challenges.”

US Critical Materials anticipates that patents for new cutting-edge rare earths separation technologies could be applied for by the end of the current eight-month term of its CRADA with Idaho National Lab.

“This research agreement, and the tech that will be developed, will help advance U.S. rare earth processing proficiency,” said Hedrick.