“Ionic Mineral Technologies was mining the clay in Utah when it chanced upon what could be the critical mineral equivalent of a gold mine.

Ionic MT had leased the land as part of its business producing nanosilicon for lithium-ion batteries, which are used in electric vehicles. But the company told WSJ Pro Sustainable Business that what it found was a host of other minerals, in what it says may be the most significant critical mineral reserve in the U.S.

Ionic MT said it discovered high grades of 16 different types of minerals, everything from lithium to alumina, germanium, rubidium, cesium, vanadium and niobium at the site in Utah’s Silicon Ridge…

Independent testing shows that the Utah deposit is made up of ‘a halloysite-hosted ion-adsorption clay,’ which essentially means it can be rich in minerals, the same kind of geological formation that supplies a big chunk of China’s rare earth production, the company said…

The company so far has drilled an area covering more than 600 acres to a depth of 100 feet, but there is much more to explore.”

From Wall Street Journal.

“Today, helium is an essential cooling component in nuclear reactors, rockets and medical diagnostic equipment such as MRI machines. The gas keeps fiber optics, superconductors, quantum computers and semiconductors cool, but skyrocketing demand has pushed supply chains to their limit, resulting in a global shortage that has persisted for more than a decade. Helium extraction also has a huge carbon footprint — almost equivalent to the U.K.’s per year — because currently, it is exclusively produced together with natural gas.

However, in recent years, pioneering discoveries have led to a pivotal change in scientists’ understanding of the geology that helps helium accumulate. Researchers have uncovered reservoirs of primary, ‘carbon-free’ helium — large accumulations of the gas that are highly concentrated and don’t contain methane — that could revolutionize the industry.

This new understanding has fueled exploration projects in a handful of regions around the world. From Yellowstone to Greenland to the East African Rift, a helium “rush” is starting to address shortages and helium’s enormous carbon footprint.”

From Live Science.

“Idaho National Laboratory has launched full-scale production of enriched fuel salt for the world’s first test of a molten chloride salt fast reactor – technology that could be deployed as soon as the 2030s for both terrestrial and maritime applications.

The Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE) project – a public-private collaboration between Southern Company, TerraPower, CORE POWER, and the US Department of Energy (DOE) – is planned to be the first reactor experiment hosted at the Laboratory for Operation and Testing in the United States (LOTUS) test bed being built at the lab by the DOE’s National Reactor Innovation Center. It uses liquid salt as the fuel and the coolant, allowing for high operating temperatures to efficiently produce heat or electricity.

The Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment will need 72 to 75 batches of fuel salt to enable it to go critical – giving Idaho National Laboratory (INL) its largest fuel production challenge in 30 years, according to the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy. The fuel salt production process began in 2020, but early attempts yielded far below the goal of 90% conversion of uranium metal into uranium chloride and production of 18 kg of fuel salt per batch. But a breakthrough in 2024 – when the team developed a new step to improve uranium utilisation – eventually led to the achievement of 95% conversion and full-batch production. They have since demonstrated they can produce a batch in as little as one day, according to INL.

The first fuel salt production batch was delivered at the end of September, with four further batches to be produced by March 2026, supporting a key national goal to advance nuclear energy outlined in an executive order issued earlier this year by President Donald Trump, the lab said.”

From World Nuclear News.

“A geothermal energy company announced Thursday that it has discovered — with AI’s help — the first commercially viable system of its kind in over 30 years.

Why it matters: Zanskar Geothermal and Minerals officials said the underground find, in a remote area of western Nevada, offers fresh evidence that geothermal can become an attractive option to meet soaring U.S. energy demand…

The Nevada formation, dubbed ‘Big Blind,’ had no surface signs of geothermal activity or any prior history of exploration. Zanskar scientists used computer models to locate a geothermal anomaly that indicated exceptionally high heat flow at the site. They fed data into Zanskar’s AI prediction engine, which helped narrow down the list of options.

Zoom in: The result led to “fewer bad wells” being drilled, Joel Edwards, Zanskar’s co-founder and chief technology officer, told Axios. That reduces the cost of the projects, he said.”

From Axios.