[Music] welcome to CEO insights I'm Marilyn Guzman with investing news.com we're here at pdac and I'm speaking with Chris Gibbs CEO and executive director of American Rare herds hi Chris hi how you doing good to have you so you recently released a an updated scoping study for your H Creek whereare Earths Project Share some of the important highlights of that study sure we uh well just leading up to that Scopia study release we completed a yeah a drilling program last year where we actually came out


with a an increase in our joke resource and what that joke resource was well yeah we've got a massive joke resource of 2.63 billion tons and that was an upgrade to that J resource through some infield Drilling and so we came out with an updated scoping study now in that updated scoping study we only updated it with those new resources and the outcome of those you know results is that for a 3 million ton random project and there's an npv yeah well there's some just um great economics but the big news is that


this this project is very economical but the important thing it's on state lands and that enables us to FasTrack permitting and so that we can move this through the drisking phase and our goal is to bring this project into production by 2029 so sure this update St scoping stud show some outstanding economics with npv at 557 million for over a 20 M you know 20e mind life but that is only on 2.4% of the overall J resource so and if we scale this up to a 6 million ton perom project you're into a


1.17 billion npv so the scalability is huge but this project is is huge and it's in the heart of the United States those are great economics um could you talk about then how uh your strategy for advancing this uh further the project well well right now um we've already commenced the permitting Pro process so you one of the key things that can hold up projects as the viewers know is really around permitting and fortunately we're on state lands and so this enables us to FastTrack that permitting and


we're expecting that permitting to come through in less than Years and we're in Wyoming so now running parallel with that we're doing our pref feasibility study um we've also commencing work on yeah yeah pilot plant facilities um and that's our NE yeah that's one of the next pieces that we're going to be focused on we've already got the permit ink for uh doing bulk test mining on this project and so we're moving the project through the the process but the you the key point is is it's yeah we've


yeah got this outstanding resource now the other thing we're moving forward is we've got a relationship with bimo um the Bank of Montreal there folks have looked under the hood and yeah they see this project as unique and so we're also working to bring in a strategic investor so that we can support the funding of this project so that it is non-dilutive for our shareholders and so yeah the key things of moving the project forward from an engineering permitting and then financing perspective yeah so we're at


pdac obviously you're talking to a lot of the investors um you know as a company that's in the rare earth sector which is certainly uh you know something that a lot of investors are looking at right now in terms of you know its role in electrification in the future uh uh if for the future how are you communicating your competitive advantage over your peers well first of all uh American reare Earths we're we're homemade rare Earths in the United States one of the the largest economies


in the world has got this problem which is where to onshore and Source these critical minerals and right now we've got this it's it's massive this project I I cannot describe it's a 2.63 billion ton JK resource it's in an outstanding mining jurisdiction so location location location it's in the heart of the United States it's not in Greenland it's not in Ukraine this is in the heart land of a state that's very supportive of mining so supportive that they've even the


state have given us some funding to help us move through these initial phases um we've also got letters of uh interest from the XM bank for the full capex for this project so there's great support so from a what makes it unique firstly is it size and scale it's it's huge secondly location location location and yeah thirdly the what we have is that we're yeah from a processing perspective we're going to be going through from not just mining but through to producing a metal oxide that then will be sold


directly into the United States and so that that's why viewers should really take a look at American Rare Earths it's it's one of the the few projects that really has a fast track that we can bring this through to production but again it's homemade RAR roots in the heart of the United States right and on that uh I guess in that line of conversation I wonder if you could comment on you know there's a lot of I guess talks in the media everywhere else about tariffs um the the the the


administration the Trump Administration um is you know uh talking looking at uh as part of that strategy for for you know imposing tariffs is like boosting its own resources for critical minerals you know as a company in in in the United States in this sector can you uh provide maybe your comments and are you seeing um any sort of indication about you know in terms of policy improvements or changes that will you know help boost that domestic Supply what what are your thoughts on that okay well this problem


with the critical minerals and rare earth in the United States is not a new problem um the yeah from a bipartisan perspective yeah the various administrations have recognized this problem and challenge but I think right now we're getting to the pointy end of the stick in that yeah in today's world yeah you the governments do recognize that they we're at risk from not just an economic perspective but it's also from a national security perspective and you we are entering a very interesting phase


right now particularly around maybe from trade Wars and tariffs but that only again reemphasizes the need to have these yeah home yeah mined and made rare Earths onsh within the United States and yeah that's where we come in that our project is one of the largest projects if not the largest in the United States H and for these magnetic rare Earths the projections are for these shortages so yeah for us yeah it is a strategic Advantage by being in the United States because you we will you be you protected


from those tariffs because what we'll be producing is those rare Earths for the domestic Market in the United States and that's around onshoring and yeah securing those rare Earths for the United States industry from a economic but also more importantly a national yeah from a defense and National Security perspective so yeah I I I see yeah obviously what's happening it it's still early days from a policy perspective um but we're very well positioned and yeah one of the things


that Federal well is a focus from a federal government's perspective is you're permitting reform now for us being on state land yeah we do not require that permitting reform it'll be great for industry to have permitting reform in the United States but for us we don't need that so we're moving through getting this project permitted on state lands which will be coming through in less than two years and moving this forward so that we can on sure these critical materials right that's an interesting point to make and


I'm sure the invest would uh appreciate knowing that thanks again Chris for taking the time to speak with me I thank you and I appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit of that story thank you thanks and thanks everyone for watching join us again next time for another edition of CEO andyes [Music]