Idaho Strategic Resources (NYSE:IDR) (“IDR” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce it has added the Lemhi Pass Thorium Project, located in the Lemhi Pass District in central Idaho. The Lemhi Pass District is “listed as the largest concentration of Thorium resources in the United States”, per the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Idaho Geological Survey (IGS).
The addition of this important and sizeable land package not only compliments IDR’s nationally ranked ‘Technology Metals’ Rare Earth Element (REE) holdings; by adding this well-known and equally important Thorium land package to its portfolio, the Company’s entrance into the ‘Energy Metals’ sector has been realized and a major U.S. Thorium/REE area is secured. Management at IDR operates with a multi-generational perspective – and the Idaho base of people, real estate, Gold production, technology metals (REEs) and energy metals (Thorium) is now complete.
The Company’s Lemhi Pass holdings covers approximately 4,200 acres and is comprised of 224 unpatented mining claims. The recently acquired Lemhi Pass land package is strategically located approximately 35 miles from the company’s Diamond Creek and Roberts Rare Earth Element holdings and 124 miles from Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). Idaho National Labs is considered the world’s premier nuclear testing facility and responsible for the development of ANEEL (Advanced Nuclear Energy for and Enriched Life) Fuel, which combines Thorium and HALEU (High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium) to create a next generation nuclear fuel. ANEEL is designed to operate in certain types of existing nuclear reactors to reduce waste up to 80%, as well as minimize cost and eliminate nuclear proliferation.
Idaho Strategics’ VP of Exploration Rob Morgan commented, “We are building from an impressive base of prior work published by the USGS, IGS, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and others. Idaho’s mineral endowment is unique in that it is comprised of two major critical mineral trends near Salmon, Idaho. The Idaho Cobalt Belt is well-known and runs subparallel to Idaho’s lesser-known, and arguably more important, REE-Th (Rare Earth Element – Thorium) Belt, which is where our Diamond Creek, Roberts, and Lemhi Pass projects are located. Lemhi Pass is an exciting addition for us because it is comprised of over 200 REE vein systems as well as being known as the #1 Thorium resource in the country.”
Mr. Morgan continues, “We’ve been working on this land package for a while. The Company’s stance on Thorium as a future source of nuclear fuel is in-part driven by our nation’s shift toward decarbonization, and the well documented historic nuclear race between Thorium and Uranium during the onset of the Cold War (for those interested, see Super Fuel: Thorium, The Green Energy Source for the Future by Richard Martin). The latter won that race due, in part, to its plutonium by-product and our country’s desire for nuclear weapons at the time, however it was also discovered that Thorium is substantially safer and serves as the more climate friendly alternative to Uranium. With a paradigm shift underway and the current landscape having changed considerably, the U.S.’ focus is now shifted toward a low-carbon future. We feel the time is right for our country to re-discover Thorium as the preferred component of nuclear fuel and a source of high output/low risk energy to work in concert with wind, hydroelectric, and solar power.”
Idaho Strategics’ President and CEO, John Swallow followed-up, “It is ironic that the last time our officials looked at Thorium vs Uranium it was initiated through government funded programs at the onset of the first Cold War. The competition between the two was well-known back then yet lost over the decades to later generations (of Americans).
Today, in addition to entering the ‘Second Cold War’, folks are realizing there is more to electrification than plugging an EV into the wall of your garage. Safe nuclear power is being discussed and thankfully the proliferation of nuclear weapons is not part of the plan this time around. We feel the environmental and efficiency aspects of Uranium will bring a renewed light to Americans about Thorium. Our country was once the global leader in Thorium-based reactors and our proprietary Thorium data was subsequently given to China. Regardless of how we got here, we feel the addition of this strategic Thorium land package could provide our stakeholders with a low cost/high return opportunity. Furthermore, it is our opinion that the need to utilize safer nuclear power will transcend politics and the advances made by INL and other labs will help us recognize Thorium as an environmentally friendly choice for nuclear-based fuel.
As previously stated, we believe our positioning well ahead of the current environment has allowed us to capture multiple drivers of value with a modest upfront and holding cost profile while providing an ownership, operational and jurisdictional first-mover advantage in this area.”
It is important to note, that in addition to Lemhi Pass being regarded as the largest concentration of Thorium resources in the United States, it has many Rare Earth Element occurrences that have the potential to be produced as by-products should the area ever be advanced into production. This acquisition rounds out IDR’s strategic three-pronged resource approach to include Gold as a store-of-value, Rare Earth Elements as a technology metal, and Thorium as an energy metal. Each of these resources (Gold, Rare Earth Elements, & Thorium) possess value in differing and often complimentary by-product respects. Management believes it is this asset combination that will allow the Company to capitalize on nation-wide trends such as inflation, decarbonization, deglobalization, energy independence, and supply chain security. It is also this asset base that provides IDR stakeholders considerable leverage toward future demands and is not easily replicated.
