US Critical Materials Announces the Results of Study by Idaho National Laboratory Showing Definitive High Grade, Economic Gallium at Sheep Creek, Montana Deposit

Idaho National Laboratory is currently exploring ways to separate and process the Sheep Creek gallium and other Critical Minerals.

Salt Lake City, Utah--(Newsfile Corp. - December 4, 2024) - US Critical Materials is pleased to announce that Phase One of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has been completed. This phase involved studying, testing, and confirming the gallium and other critical minerals content at US Critical Materials Sheep Creek Deposit.

Simultaneously, INL had a team of scientists, engineers, lab technicians, and critical mineral experts begin to explore ways to create a separation and process system for the Sheep Creek ore. The next phase is being structured to cover the next 2 years of continued development of multiple separation and processing technologies.

Idaho National Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratory engaged in world leading critical materials research and development. INL excels in technology development in the Advanced Separation Science & Engineering technology space and is known throughout the DOE system as the Separation Sciences R&D Testbed.

US Critical Materials can confirm that INL measured grades of gallium from 180 parts per million (ppm) to 385 ppm and up to 18% (tree) total rare earth elements. "We are now able to confirm the presence of high-grade gallium at Sheep Creek. We look forward to continued work which will further develop a process to separate the gallium and other elements in an efficient and sustainable manner," stated Dr. Robert Fox, Critical Materials Business Lead for INL Energy, Environment, Science & Technology Directorate.

"The gallium and rare earth grades, calculated and verified by Idaho National Laboratory, are higher than any that we are aware of in the United States," stated Jim Hedrick, US Critical Materials President, and former 31-year rare earth commodity specialist for the USGS and US Bureau of Mines

According to the 2024 USGS gallium Mineral Commodity Summary, the average gallium content worldwide is 19 ppm, and potential U. S. gallium deposits consist mainly of subeconomic resources. No gallium is currently produced in the United States.

Gallium is consistently listed as one of the top supply risks related to US National Security, as the U.S. is 100% dependent on imported gallium, primarily from China. In July 2023 the Chinese government embargoed the export of gallium, which is critical for national defense and many other vital applications. Gallium is used for semiconductors, 5G technology, smartphones, satellite systems, critical photonics technologies, and especially current and next generation defense systems.