The U.S. Geological Survey's draft 2025 supply-risk model has identified samarium as carrying the highest supply disruption risk among all 50 critical minerals evaluated, a development that directly elevates the strategic importance of Ucore Rare Metals Inc. and its planned Ontario-based refining facility. According to the USGS, samarium ranks number one on the agency's overall disruption index due to heavy concentration of global production in a single country, while gadolinium also appears in the high-risk tier due to similar production and processing concentration trends.
Ucore Rare Metals is developing a first-of-its-kind North American processing hub dedicated to refining samarium and gadolinium oxides, part of a broader strategy to rebuild a complete, Western-controlled supply chain for critical materials used in advanced manufacturing, energy technologies and defense applications. This initiative comes at a critical moment as the United States faces its most severe supply-chain warning yet for a key defense mineral, making the Canadian project strategically important for North American critical minerals security.
The company's vision includes disrupting the People's Republic of China's control of the North American rare earth element supply chain through the near-term development of processing facilities, with plans that include a heavy and light rare-earth processing facility in Louisiana, subsequent strategic metals complexes in Canada and Alaska, and the longer-term development of Ucore's 100% controlled Bokan-Dotson Ridge Rare Heavy REE Project in Southeast Alaska. For more information about the company's approach to rare- and critical-metal resources, extraction, and separation technologies, visit https://www.ucore.com.
The supply risk assessment highlights broader vulnerabilities in Western manufacturing and defense capabilities, where advanced technologies from electric vehicles to military systems depend on stable access to these specialized materials. With samarium and gadolinium both appearing in high-risk categories, the concentration of production creates significant geopolitical and economic exposure for North American industries that rely on these minerals for permanent magnets, nuclear reactor control rods, and various high-tech applications.
Industry leaders monitoring critical mineral security will find the latest developments and updates relating to UURAF available through specialized financial communications platforms, with comprehensive information accessible at https://ibn.fm/UURAF. The convergence of breaking news, insightful content, and actionable information about supply chain vulnerabilities provides crucial context for decision-makers navigating an increasingly complex global minerals landscape where strategic independence has become both an economic and national security imperative.
