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You who have read my articles know that I am
very bullish on Ucore (UURAF).
They are 100 owners of the Bokan Mountain project which has no residential or
indigenous population within proximity of this project. There is a three mile
road that leads to a harbor, which has a wharf and direct access to the
Pacific Ocean. The main REE to be found in this mountain isDysprosium. See
chart below.
As I write this, on Tuesday morning June 7th this stock is on sale. I can only
assume that it sold off in lockset with the rest of the mining stocks. Ucore
is my largest holding and I bought more today. If it opens at this price
tomorrow or trades lower I will be buying more.
Yesterday
Ucore issued a press release and
reported that it has acquired significant additional rare earth-prospective
land holdings in Alaska. During May, 2011, the Company completed the
acquisition of a substantial holding in the northern Ray Mountains region of
central Alaska, on lands selected for mineral potential by the State of
Alaska.
Through its wholly owned subsidiary Landmark
Alaska LP, Ucore has completed the acquisition of approximately 11,400 acres
located in the Ray Mountains, in close proximity to the Dalton Highway. The
Company has additionally conducted initial analyses of field-concentrated
heavy mineral samples from the region. Most of the initial sample set was collected
directly from surface exposures, and the heavy mineral content can be
expected to increase at greater depths.
The initial assay results indicate mineral
concentrates containing 5% to more than 30% combined valuable metals, with a
total rare earth element (REE) content ranging from 1% to 8%. The samples
additionally show high heavy REE content and a high content of the strategic
metal dysprosium. A summary of assay results from the 2008 drill program at
the Dotson Zone are available at the following link:
http://ucore.com/ray-mountains-assay-summary-may-2011.pdf
Governor Parnell along with Senators
Murkowski and Begich from the State of Alaska have shown tremendous support
for Ucore and their plan to expedite the development of America’s
preeminent heavy REE asset at the Bokan Mountain project. With that in mind,
Ucore has elected to even further invest in Alaskan REE exploration and
development. With the Ray Mountains acquisition, they have now covered what
they believe to be two of the most promising REE development projects. In the
near future, we can expect the Bokan project to become an important source of
heavy REE’s to the U.S., and Ucore will now begin to evaluate the Ray
Mountains property to this end as well.
The target metals are contained in heavy
minerals which are widespread across the area, known to be resistant to
weathering, and believed by Ucore geologists to be highly prospective for
potentially valuable REE content and other associated rare metals. The
Company has scheduled an initial reconnaissance program for the Ray Mountains
project to commence this year.
The State of Alaska has been highly proactive
in encouraging the exploration and development of strategic rare earth metals
known to be critically important to the United States. As part of the Alaska
State Budget which commences July 1, 2011, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell has
announced a $500,000 allocation to the strategic assessment of REE resources
within the state. Under the Alaska Statehood Act of 1959, Alaska is entitled to approximately 105 million of its own acres for
resource development and other uses, and Ucore’s Ray Mountains project
is situated within lands selected under this entitlement.
Ucore’s analysis of initial Ray
Mountains samples indicates an unusually high content of the heavy REE known
as dysprosium. High dysprosium content is also a hallmark of Ucore’s
flagship project at Bokan Mountain in Southeast Alaska. In a recent document
warning of the strategic importance of REE to new energy-and defense related
technologies, the U.S. Department of Energy noted that dysprosium is the
most critical of the elements they evaluated and is currently derived only
from sources in China.
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