Essex County supervisors back Boston-based start up’s efforts to salvage materials found in abandoned iron mining operation.
A three-year study of the tailings pile at an abandoned Moriah iron mine shows that the site has significant amounts of the rare earth elements needed to produce advanced electronics and national weapons systems, a Boston company told Essex County supervisors Monday.
Rare earths burst into the world’s consciousness this year when China — which dominates all phases of rare earth production — threatened to withhold its supply, forcing the White House to retreat from the extreme tariffs it had threatened to levy on Chinese goods.
The situation also added fuel to a long-simmering quest to find other sources of rare earths to protect the supply chains of industrial producers in America and around the globe.
It’s long been known that tailings — the gritty waste left behind after the extraction of iron ore — contained traces of rare earths. What hasn’t been known in detail is the type, the quantity and whether they could be refined in a way that was consistent with the Adirondack environmental ethic.
But on Monday, representatives from Phoenix Tailings, a Boston-based start-up who have signed a multi-year agreement with the supervisors to study the old Barton Mine site, said findings justify moving on to the development stage, with full production possible in another two to three years.
“The objective of that agreement was, hey, give us three years to see if we can do what has not been done before, and come back to you with the results,” said Patrick Portmann, Phoenix Tailings chief of staff. “If we have something, then we go on two more years, and get a pilot (plant) developed. The good news is that we do have something, and we know today what we have.”
In its report, Phoenix said assays of the 3 million metric tons of tailings at Barton revealed concentrations of eight rare elements used in such applications as lasers, jet engines, high-strength magnets and ceramics.
Portmann said Phoenix is now looking for investors, along with state and federal grants, to build the production capacity to separate and refine the elements in a way that is both profitable and environmentally benign.