White Mesa, Utah, Ponds at the Energy Fuels Resources' White Mesa Mill. The ponds were originally built to hold the mill's uranium tailings, but increasingly are filled with radioactive waste from across the U.S. and abroad. Members of the Ute Mountain Ute and other tribes fear that leaks in the ponds will contaminate their drinking water. (Photo by: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON —The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) inked a pair of conditional loans totaling $1.2 billion this week within the rare earth elements sector, according to department announcements.
Today the department announced it has singed a $725 million conditional loan with Denver-based Energy Fuels — a company specializing in uranium production — to support the buildout of a new, US-based rare earth separation and metallization facility.
“The company’s increased production will directly support permanent magnet facilities across the broader US industrial base and improve supply chains for other specialty defense and industrial products,” the department wrote in the announcement.
The agreement “specifies customary additional steps that the company must take to proceed toward financial close on the loan, including fulfilling financial, legal, technical and other due diligence requirements.”
