AIM Exploration issued an update on rare earth elements on December 27, 2017, from Henderson, Nevada. The anthracite mining and exploration company trades over the counter as AEXE. It pointed to a third-party news report from November 17, 2017, which said rare earth elements had been found in anthracite.
According to the company, that report drew on work by the U.S. Department of Energy and its National Energy Technology Laboratory. The release cited Energy Secretary Rick Perry. In his view, these elements matter for computers, cell phones and defense systems. He also said the U.S. leans on imports because the elements are hard and costly to extract.
Rare earth elements are a group of 17 little-known metals, including neodymium and ytterbium. Even so, they end up in smartphone screens, sensors, electric motors and military hardware.
The release also quoted U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, citing the Standard-Speaker. Barletta sees President Trump’s executive order on domestic critical minerals as a boon for his area. He hopes the Department of the Interior will list rare earth elements as critical minerals. That, he argued, would cut reliance on China. In his view, local production would also support national security and bring jobs to Pennsylvania.
AIM said demand for anthracite was rising for other reasons as well. The coal is used to filter drinking water, so the company tied a record need for clean water to recent East Coast hurricanes. It also serves high-heat forging of metals and alloys, while burning with less ash and pollution than regular coal.
The company has not set a firm price for its coal. That said, it noted Alibaba listings for clean anthracite at $400 to $1,000 per metric ton. Calcined anthracite sold there for $1,000 to $3,500 per ton. A release the day before had said several buyers asked for purity samples, and sample requests were up from earlier years. SGS Labs analyzed the coal the previous year, but buyers have since asked for fresh tests.
AIM plans more trips in 2018 to meet coal experts. It intends to mine 1,000 hectares in Peru, an area it compares to three times the size of Central Park. Still, the company cautioned that its production plans do not rest on a feasibility study. No such study has shown the reserves to be economically and technically viable.
