Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
US Strategic Metals (USSM) announced on Tuesday that its $100.8 million loan application has been granted expedited approval by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in recognition for the potential job creation by the company’s critical minerals project.
USSM is planning to mine what it considers to be the largest cobalt reserve in North America. It holds an 18-year mineral supply of cobalt (plus nickel and copper) on a 7.3-square-kilometre site in Missouri, known as the Madison mine project.
The project was granted expedited approval because domestic production of critical minerals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium is squarely in the national interest of the United States, USSM said in a news release.
The loan falls under the company’s EB-5 program application, a key part of the project financing. The EB-5 program, administered by the USCIS, is designed to provide foreign investors with a pathway to US permanent residency through job-creating economic investments in new commercial enterprises. To qualify, the investment must create at least ten full-time jobs for US workers within two years.
“This approval is a recognition of our plan to create jobs in Missouri. The Missouri project will secure domestic supplies of essential materials, generate high-quality jobs and boost the regional economy,” USSM CEO Stacy Hastie said in a news release.
According to LCR Capital Partners, a private investment and advisory services firm, this approval positions USSM as the first critical minerals EB-5 investment opportunity.
“Investors benefit from priority processing, because the project qualifies under the rural category, and from the ability to request expedited adjudication due to the project’s designation as being in the US national interest,” LCR stated.
USSM said its project is poised to significantly bolster the America’s supply chain for critical battery metals to fuel the green energy revolution and advance US economic and national security. To achieve that, it will produce cobalt sulfate, nickel sulfate and lithium carbonate from cobalt hydroxide and black mass, recycled material from spent lithium-ion batteries and battery scrap.
To date, the company has secured over $500 million in funding and commitments for the development of its cobalt-nickel mine and the construction of a hydrometallurgical battery metals recycling facility based in Fredericktown, Missouri.
The company was also earmarked by the Export-Import Bank of the United States for a loan package worth $400 million to support the development of its Missouri-based mining and metallurgical project.
