ELK CREEK - The Colorado based company of NioCorp bought just under 230 acres of land in Elk Creek, NE this spring. They're looking for an important element called niobium, a type of metal that has several crucial uses for major industries. Today, NioCorp held a tour for investors to provide an update on the project.

“We wanted to have a chance to say hello to our neighbors in a different sense,” Mark Smith, NioCorp CEO, said. “We are their true neighbor now. We own the property.”

Mark Smith is NioCorp’s CEO. He explained what Niobium is and why it’s important to the steel industry, one that was hurt by the pandemic.

“Niobium, when you add it to steel to make an alloy, it improves the strength, it reduces the weight of the total amount of steel you need, it improves corrosion characteristics, heat characteristics. It does amazing things to the steel,” Smith said.

The site also has a number of magnetic rare earths which are important for electric cars. In addition to niobium, NioCorp will also be working with scandium and titanium.

“You can use scandium aluminum alloy’s in the construction of the commercial or defense airplanes,” Smith said. “Titanium, multiple uses. It’s a metal, you can alloy it, it can work against corrosion.”

NioCorp made it clear today that they have found rare earths - it’s now about making use of them.

“We want the public to know, this facility has rare earths, we know how to produce rare earths,” Smith said. “If we put all that together, we think the United States will be a better place, because it has domestic production of oxide material.”

If things do pan out the way NioCorp and its share holders hope, COO Scott Honan said it will mean big things for the area.

“I think the economic activity associated with the mine is really going to help a number of small towns here,” Honan said. “It will attract more residents to the ares, help some of the local businesses, and really give the whole area a real shot in the arm.”

To do so takes time, which is part of why NioCorp wanted to meet with the public.

“We wanted people to know that all the stuff we say in a press release, that can take 18 months,” Smith said. “The timing and the accuracy you have to have in all the work that you do, just takes a lot.”

The process has taken a long time, but that ’s all because of careful work to make sure it all pans out as everybody hopes.