US greenlights rare earth mine next to Mountain Pass in California

The US government is greenlighting the development of a historic mine in California next to its only rare earths operation, as part of President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to bolster domestic production of critical minerals.On April 8, the Department of the Interior issued its approval for Dateline Resources (ASX: DTR) to continue its development of the Colosseum rare earths project situated within the Mojave National Preserve in San Bernardino County. Due to its location, the project has been stalled for years.According to the Australian miner, the Department’s communication reaffirms that the company’s existing rights under the Mining Act and the California Desert Protection Act will now be valid.The DOI approval paves the way to the development of America’s second rare earths mine. Currently, the US has only one producing rare earths mine, the Mountain Pass held by MP Materials (NYSE: MP), located just 10 km to the south.“The Department of the Interior’s public support and confirmation of our rights provide a strong foundation for moving the Colosseum project forward,” stated Dateline’s managing director Stephen Baghdadi in a press release.The Colosseum project has a rich history of mining dating to the California Gold Rush, but it wasn’t until 1986 that industrial-scale gold mining took place on the property. Between 1989 and 1993, the mine, under ownership of Canada’s LAC Minerals, churned out 344,000 oz. from two open pits. Barrick Gold then held the project for two decades but conducted minimal activity.Similarity to Mountain PassDateline took over the project in 2021 and has since reviewed work undertaken by the USGS to identify radio metric signatures for the Colosseum – Mountain Pass corridor.Upon completion of review, Dateline’s team concluded that the project shares the same geological setting as Mountain Pass, which started production in 1952 and was a primary global source of rare earth elements (REE) from the 1960s to the 1990s. Technical assessments suggest the potential for REE-bearing ore within Colosseum’s claim boundary, Dateline said.The project currently has no estimated resources for REE, only a JORC-2012-compliant gold resource of 1.1 million oz., with about two-thirds in the measured and indicated categories. A scoping study in August 2024 outlined an eight-plus-year mine life averaging 75,000 oz. of gold production per annum. Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com