u/danieldeubank

IBC’s Nonferrous Division Leadership + Toni Wendel Return — How It Fits NioCorp’s NAMA / Advanced Alloys Strategy

With Jenny Gipson now President of IBC’s Nonferrous (Copper Alloys) Division and former CFO Toni Wendel returning part-time for a 4–6 month special project, the pieces are quietly aligning for meaningful downstream progress on the scandium (and broader advanced alloys) front.

Quick Refresher on NioCorp’s Downstream Vehicle

NioCorp created NAMA (NioCorp Advanced Metals and Alloys LLC) specifically to handle everything after the Elk Creek mine: scandium oxide → metal → master alloy → finished components. NAMA already owns the FEA Materials IP/assets for efficient Al-Sc master alloy production. The goal is a U.S. mine-to-parts supply chain for scandium-enhanced alloys, with strong defense/aerospace focus.

Why IBC’s Nonferrous Division Fits Perfectly

IBC’s Franklin, Indiana facility is a vertically integrated copper alloys powerhouse (casting, forging, heat treating, machining). Their Nonferrous Division is defense-qualified and has exactly the infrastructure NioCorp needs to scale:

• Proven Collaboration on Sc-Al — NioCorp and IBC have already successfully cast 0.2% aluminum-scandium alloy at IBC’s foundry (Oct 2025 announcement). This wasn’t a one-off — it validates IBC’s ability to take NioCorp’s future scandium output and produce usable alloy forms.
• Jenny Gipson’s Promotion — 25+ years in forging (including 14 years as VP Ops at Fountaintown Forge). She rose through the ranks at IBC (Program Manager → Production Coordinator → VP Ops → now Division President). Real shop-floor, takt-time, quality, and defense-grade manufacturing experience. This is not a figurehead move — it’s operational muscle for scaling.
• Toni Wendel’s Return — Former CFO coming back part-time for a targeted project is smart transition management. Financial modeling, cost optimization, contract support, or preparing for larger federal funding — her institutional knowledge is gold during this growth phase.

Strategic Synergies with NAMA

• Copper Alloys + Scandium Enhancement — IBC’s core strengths (copper-nickel, aluminum bronze, etc.) complement Sc-Al alloys for aerospace, naval, and high-performance applications. A deeper relationship (partnership, expanded JV, or more) under NAMA would accelerate “mine → master alloy → finished parts.”
• Defense & Qualification Edge — IBC is already ITAR/DFARS compliant with established customers. This shortens the path for NioCorp’s scandium materials to reach qualified defense platforms.
• Scaling Without Building From Scratch — NioCorp doesn’t need to replicate forging/casting capacity if IBC can handle it (or serve as the foundation).

IMHO Bottom Line
Jenny’s promotion and Toni’s return are quiet but meaningful signals that IBC is positioning its Nonferrous Division for growth — and that the NioCorp/IBC relationship is deepening at the right time. If Elk Creek hits EXIM FID and starts producing scandium oxide, IBC (via NAMA coordination) looks like a natural partner to turn that into real, qualified Al-Sc components for U.S. defense and commercial markets.

This isn’t guaranteed full integration, but it’s a logical, low-friction path that leverages existing assets and proven collaboration. The “mine-to-parts” vision gets a lot more credible with this kind of operational depth behind it.

Thanks to Mark Wolma for his 18+ years of service at IBC and the completion of vertical integration at the Franklin facility. Good luck to Jenny and welcome back Toni — experienced hands at the wheel matter when scaling advanced materials.

From the latest PR, "Nonferrous Division, which operates the Company’s vertically integrated copper alloys production facility in Franklin, Ind."

If what was previously called "The Copper Division" is now incorporated into IBC’s "Nonferrous Division" does this provide speculation of a potential Ferrous Division?

No, but if IBC ever expands into Sc-Al (or similar advanced aluminum alloys), it would logically fit under their newly named Nonferrous Division, alongside copper alloys. This reinforces the idea that the "Nonferrous" label is designed to encompass multiple light/high-performance metals beyond just copper.

Presentation is Slide 4 of the current NioCorp deck

My name is Bill Peterson US Metals and Mining analyst. We're pleased to have NioCorp for this track. So, we have Mark Smith who’s the CEO he’s gonna be able to speak to the slide for a little bit. I have a bunch of questions but certainly happy to take your questions as well so Mark, thanks sir. Welcome to our natural resources conference.

Mark-Thank you Bill an honor; a privilege to be here. I’ll start out with it. Just a very quick overview of some things that you’ll find very important for the company right now let’s start in the green section 1st. We are going to be a Greenfield mining project with a below ground mine underground mine in an above ground processing facility we will produce all of our products in their final form for customers, so this is not an operation where we produce concentrates send them somewhere else to be processed and hope that they get a good price. We’re gonna be producing final products on site. We are fully permitted. We are located in the very south east corner of the state of Nebraska. It’s a very very good state to do business in and the corporate tax rate has gone down I think twice already since we’ve started our efforts of permitting and in construction, and I would suggest that they will probably be looking at further tax reduction so very business friendly we have a poly metallic ore body very very large to the 38 year mine life that we publicize in our 2022 feasibility study only constitutes about 10% of the total size of the ore body so this this mine was built an operational will be here for literally centuries, not decades. This is gonna be there for a long long time. The polymetallic nature of this ore body allows us to to get multiple products out of it. We’re primarily there for the Nb, which is Niobium. The Niobium is really ubiquitous in our economy. Every building that you see that’s two stories are higher, has certain yield strength properties that the steel that they construct the building has to meet and they do that by adding Niobium to the steel and you only need 1 pound of Niobium for 2000 pounds of steel and you achieve that double the yield straight requirements and you meet the building specs as a result of that we were primarily there for the Niobium, but it is poly metallic so we’ll have multiple byproducts so we get to produce from the mine as well well that includes Sc which is scandium. Scandium think of it a lot like Niobium actually except you add just a little bit of scandium to aluminum, and you can increase the yield strength of the aluminum and the alloy will be a lighter weight alloy is compared to aluminum as well will produce TI or titanium will produce NdPr, which is neodymium praseodymium. That’s a rare earth material and it’s the primary component of a permanent rare earth magnet, which is very important to our economy and then will produce a DY which is dysprosium. It will also produce terbium Tb both considered heavy rare earth elements and they are very important again. You don’t need very much of them but when you need them, you absolutely have to have them and there are no substitutes today and what they serve is that they can actually make that NdPr. magnet a higher temperature magnet so when you hit about 200°F with just an ordinary NdPr magnet, the magnet loses loses all of its magnetic capability and when it goes back below 200° you don’t gain the magnetic properties back it’s gone so military the EV‘s, wind turbines all the robotics in the world, they all require high temperature where rare earth permanent magnets, and therefore you have to add either Dy or Tb to achieve that high temperature capacity so these are interesting elements for the United States and actually multiple countries almost all countries around the world in that Niobium we import 100% of that material into the United States today we produce zero Sc, we import 100% today. Ti, we import about 85% NdPr. We probably import greater than 95% of that today and Dy Tb we import 100% as well so with that that really strong reliance on foreign sources needless to say the United States government has taken a very large interest in this project and want to see it up and running and so we’ve been looking at different ways now that we’ve got a lot of the technical work behind us and the de-risking of the project is complete. We’re now in the financing mode and you can see in the middle column we were able to raise over $500 million since early 2025. We have zero debt and zero convertible debt on our ballot sheet so we are as clean as it can be if we go out all the way over on the right hand side you can see where the rest of the finance and would come in the lower right hand corner. We’re looking at about a $780 million loan from the US Export Import Bank (EXIM). We’ve been working on that loan and this is this isn’t a letter of interest we did that over three years ago. We’re actually we filed our application and we’ve been going through the due diligence process. We’ve been going through that for two years and 11 months now so we are just about there with EXIM. They’re waiting for two things from us and we hope to deliver those two things within the next few weeks and the EXIM process should reach conclusion very quickly; that will complete the project financing in terms of debt and the equity since we raised over $500 million and then final item here that we just announced I believe it was in in April that with the exception of the 50% of our FerroNiobium that is under contract already with Thyssenkrupp out of Germany everything else will be sold to Traxys USA; that really puts us in a very good position with EXIM and allows us to complete that loan process once that is finalized which should also be in the “next few weeks here” they use that offtake as is kind of the way to calculate debt capacity and ability to repay so we should be able to bring that EXIM loan home very quickly so we’re a long ways down the road. All the permitting is done. The tactical work is done, although we’re updating it and it should be published here in the next few weeks project financing is largely behind us. We need to get EXIM authorization and that should be within the next few months as well so it’s an exciting time in the company we’re getting ready to start construction. We hope to start construction late 2026. It’ll be a three-year construction project and we can start producing some of these minerals in the United States, which we are not doing right now, so Bill thank you for that opportunity and I would be happy to answer any questions

Bill-Spend a little time on the periodic table first, market environment, policy, move on the project like that is the name of the company that’s also primary use to strengthen steel high-rise things like that hundred percent out of China I guess, how does that influence the market I mean I don’t know if that has been the rare perspective primarily of NDP as well as the program I’ve seen some pretty strong export controls. How’s it working?

Mark-I said that was my mistake. If I said that Niobium is actually there’s three producing mines in the world today I misunderstood no problem. It’s an area. By the way there’s one small mine out of Canada. They produce about 4% of the world Niobium needs there’s another small mine in Brazil that produces about 6% of the world and needs and then there’s a very large mine in Brazil that produces about 90% of the Niobium that we need in the world today I was on the board of directors for the large company, CBMM, very proud of that association and what a great company. They have created a very, very stable pricing environment for Niobium and the steel companies love that because the steel companies like to put their annual business plan together, they like to make sure they meet that plan and they get their bonuses at the end of the year, so Niobium is one of their favorite products although it sounds like it’s 96% in Brazil and 4% in Canada. We should take a step back and understand that there is a Chinese connection here. For all practical purposes it was Chinese money that purchased the Canadian operation some years back probably more than 10 years ago.  About 10 years ago a Chinese mine corporation purchased the smaller Brazilian mine in Brazil and in 2012 China actually took a 15% interest in CBMM. So my point being here, number one, China is the largest user of Niobium in the world. That goes almost hand-in-hand with being the largest steel maker. They viewed Niobium as a critical strategic mineral well advance of the United States which took that that opinion, and they took care of that issue they have made their investments and they have their ownership and they have their Niobium under control for their for their country even though it’s all outside of China and it’s interesting to note. Also, China doesn’t have any Niobium resources in country so they had to go outside of China to secure this critical strategic material; very important.

Bill-Scandium, define what that looks like as well, we had a lot of aerospace companies so it’s been reported you are in a partnership with Lockheed Martin regarding these sort of alloys that are important for jets and other platforms. I guess what you can say publicly can you speak to that or maybe even more broadly and how these are used this is it really

Mark- Scandium is exciting because it’s unknown nobody knows about Sc and there’s only about 35 tons of this Sc material produced in the world today so less than two truckloads of scandium were produced in the world today. NioCorp once we’re up and running nameplate capacity we will be producing about 100 tons so about five truckloads of this material. The uses of Sc have been well known for 20, 30, 40 years and the latent demand for Sc is probably upwards of 3000 tons per year. The problem is always been on the supply side. There just isn’t a secure there isn’t a reliable supply of the material and pricing for scandium has really been a problem as well. Because it is so scarce the price was was quite high for some period of time. China announce several years ago that they wanted to control the Scandium market and so they did their normal routine when they want to do that. They started to produce more cause it used to be probably 15 to 20 tons per year so they started to produce a little bit more and they also dropped the price so instead of about $3500 a kilogram which it was before they announced that it all of a sudden dropped to about $700 per kilogram but on April 4, 2025 China included scandium on the list of seven heavy rare earths that they were going to restrict export export of. And they’ve done a good job of restricting that there is no scandium that’s leaving China right now so now we end up with bifurcated pricing and China has been successful with keeping Sc about about $700 a kilogram in China but outside of China, it’s doing much like all the other rare earths. It’s escalating quite rapidly and today scandium is selling outside of China anywhere from about $3000 a kilogram to $6500 a kilogram. There’s not much available we have a very small scandium alloy business that we are trying to to create for the end users of that alloy in country here in the US and the Department of Defense / Department of War really asked us to make that happen so we’ve made that happen. We’re actually out in the market trying to buy scandium because until we produce it at the mine that’s how we get our feed stock for this business and so that $3000 to $6500 is actual immediately available market information that we’re getting day by day as we’re trying to buy Sc to prepare the Scandium aluminum alloy for companies like Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin, great partnership with them, they have a couple of different uses for for the Scandium aluminum alloys is they’re using it to enhance the technology on the fighter jets to make our pilots safer and as they say more lethal, it’s always an interesting conversation when you have safe in those types of words with people, but basically it’s gonna take it from a Generation 5 to a Generation 6 fighter technology level and that’s all because of the scandium that’s in that alloy the other thing that they’re doing now and they found that they’re using composites to a large degree on the front end of the wings for these fighter jets and what they found is that they can use scandium aluminum alloy in lieu of the composite they can save money. It’s easier to work with than the composites and and they feel that this is going to be a better overall choice for them in the long run, that’s music to our ear cause that means more demand for scandium and it’s with a partner that we already know and we have a great relationship with, so very excited about scandium to say the least and look forward to. You’re really continuing to develop the market for scandium and make sure that the world that uses scandium knows that there’s a reliable supplier of that here in the United States.

Bill- moving along this sort of semi periodic table so titanium it is a designated critical mineral along with I don’t know several dozen others, but um it’s also more commodity product unlike some of these ones you just spoke to the opportunities with the direction of titanium

Mark-so we’re gonna produce a product called titanium tetrachloride, which is in the titanium world is known as tickle and tickle is a precursor to making titanium sponge and titanium sponge is the metallic version of titanium. There are three facilities in the United States that have historically purchased tickle and then produced titanium sponge. All three of those are shut down right now, so our customers today would have to be out of Japan or Europe and readily available customers so that’s not an issue, but I think that with the with the recognition by the Department of War / Department of Defense as of the last couple of months in particular, how important and how truly critical strategic titanium is to their operations, you think about the fighter jets and what not those are upwards of 70% by weight titanium so all of a sudden they’re starting to think about how important titanium is we’re hoping that we can continue to work with some of the previous owners of those titanium sponge plants and potentially get our tickle material moved into plants here in the United States that can create the sponge and create the metal that we ultimately need.

Bill-a bunch of companies more of the traditional, traditional, rare earths and heavies. I guess you and your plans to have the Nebraska project make both both of these products talk about having a large indicated Tb and second Dp any Pr what’s your ore body like? What’s the concentration the ore body?

Mark- The ore body for rare earths in particular is really really a perfect situation for mining because the ore grade for the rare earths in the resource is just as constant. This can be we could have fluctuations of niobium and scandium and in titanium, but the rare earths ore grade is just perfect for us so it creates a very good processing situation then because you have a steady head grade going into your processing units the total rare earth oxides or grade in the in the resource measures added about 0.35% on its own as a primary rare producer you would never mine this ore body solely to produce rare earths. We can do it because it’s going to be a byproduct of of our overall production scheme here and it allows us to take that lower ore grade to capture very significant value out of out of these rare earths, especially in the market today and the market for rare earths much like scandium mentioned a minute ago it’s really bifurcated pricing right now so NdPr ever since July 2025 when MP materials got their floor price of $110 I believe it was the price went from about $55 a kilogram in China up to $110. I think it’s about $110 - $115 a kilogram in China today and it’s about $125 outside of China today. The Dy and the Tb are very different because they really, there’s a lot of talk and a lot of people saying that that they are either are going to produce it or have produced it but outside of China there’s basically zero Dy and Tb being produced today and what that has created is an extreme situation for price bifurcation much like scandium sales for about $250 a kilogram in China today it sells for about $1500 a kilogram outside of China, terbium slightly worse, it sells for about $1000 a kilogram inside of China and now it’s upwards of $4500-$5000 a kilogram outside of China so we view the revenue from the NdPr. The Dy the Tb is being a significant add-on to our 2022 feasibility study where we did not include rare earth magnetic products in our suite. We’re adding those now because we have done the geologic work and metallurgical work to demonstrate that we can produce these products. We can produce them consistently and it will add a very nice additional revenue stream for us.

Bill- in this sort of policy support and have you mentioned MP with price floor and price for the Sierra Verde project as well but do you see the government expanding price for mechanisms to these other other producers first and then the other metals between the ones you have?

Mark- We absolutely see that as a continuing practice there were some articles that came out I don’t know if six or seven months ago saying that no more that would happen and from what I understand that federal employee no longer works for the US government and we’ve had cases since then where the US government is establishing floor prices for these minerals so that’s happening. I think we’re also seeing the President used the powers he has under Section 232 as they’re called it under the Department of Commerce and he’s basically taken the position that they demonstrated through all their studies how critical/strategic all these minerals are and he’s going to use his ability to assess duties for these critical/strategic materials if they flood into the country at inappropriate pricing, he’s gonna use duties to prop those prices up. We know Project Vault as well; we don’t know a lot of the details behind that yet we’re learning more and more about it every day but I guess my simplistic thinking is that if the EXIM is gonna put $10 billion of loan money into a project that covers these products I think almost my definition the price has to continue to go up or EXIM’s not gonna be able to make any money on that loan so we review all of these activities as very promising. We count it as solid traction to make sure that these materials are properly priced and it can be competitive in the world.

Bill-so come to the project in Southeast Nebraska they’re project where the project stand and I guess I guess we think about commercial production of these metals

Mark-we’ve done, we’re updating our 2022 feasibility study that we hope to have that done in the next few weeks so I’m always thinking ahead so in my mind, you know the technical de risking basically behind us to a large the financing is there we have to finish things up with with EXIM, but we’re very very close on that and the next step is gonna be starting construction and assuming that we continue to move as progressively as we are with EXIM we should have financing in place this year. We should start full construction before the end of 2026 it’s a three-year construction project and we should start producing some of these products in late 2029 have a full year production in 2030.

Bill-I don’t know but how does your flow sheet compare? Are you gonna be separate or all these don’t sound good for like the flow sheet for these?

Mark-so I won’t get into that. I’ll spend another day with you on the flow sheet. We welcome. It’s a different flow sheet and the other three Niobium producers of the world are using. They basically use floatation as their first step and they have large crystal structures so they can do that and do it effectively and costly. We have a very fine grain material and it’s very intergrained and so we’re actually using full Hydromet so we’re dissolving the ore into an acid, and then once the into the acid, the scandium and the magnetic rare earth go into the liquid portion and the Niobium in the titanium going to the solid portion we split them and then the simple side is the Sc and the magnetic rare that’s just solvent extraction at that point so it’s very straightforward all known technologies I might add as well.

Bill-Is this more OPEX intensive or CAPEX intensive?

Mark-in that case typically you spend more OPEX on Hydromet than you will for the gravity separation techniques and then the OPEX it can go either way depending on what the price of acid is.

Bill-what are the key agents here?

Mark-Sulfuric acid, Hydrochloric acid and and natural gas will be three primary feed stocks we have to bring in.

Bill- um, you kind of alluded, but the scandium supply chain OEM supply chain, especially related to this masteralloy. It’s investment before the mine can you provide details on that commercial strategy?

Mark- Our commercial strategy is to fill as much of the supply chain for scandium as we can in the United States because we had a virtually zero in the United States in terms of scandium production, and in terms of the ability to convert that to a Scandium metal or Scandium aluminum master alloy. So, the Department of Defense is part of the $10 million grant that you can see here on the right hand side of the slide about $1 million of that was designated for our research into how can we convert scandium oxide into scandium metal because we cannot do that here in the US today and we have two customers that want to buy scandium metal today so we have done the research. We found two technologies that we like we liked one better than the other and so we’ve actually tried that in about two weeks ago, we made our first Scandium metal we’re waiting for the final analysis to come out on that effort, but everything looks fantastic in terms of what the scandium metal looks like and in all the other parameters that we were measuring, we do need to get to analytics yet that would be a huge win for the United States because we do not produce any Scandium metal in the United States today and this will be an environmentally acceptable way to make scandium metal as well because other parts of the world where scandium metal is made that would never be able to be permitted here in the United States so we have a method that will be permittable and it looks like it could be a very economic. On the master alloy side where you blend a 2 to 4% scandium content into aluminum that is the most heavily used amount of scandium in the world today, we actually purchased the assets and intellectual property from a company out of Massachusetts in December of last year that is able to take scandium oxide and converted into the Scandium aluminum master alloy. We think that they can probably get upwards of 10% scandium into that master alloy, which is as exciting as well because of all the advantages that that provides, but we are we have customers for Sc-Al master alloy today that want us to be able to produce this and our limiting factor right now is trying to buy the scandium because China will not sell us scandium anymore. We used to buy our scandium from China. There’s something about announcing our partnership with Lockheed Martin where we’re now shut off and we can’t buy scandium from China anymore, so we’re finding it in other small qualities around the world and we’ve got companies that want to start, including Lockheed Martin, that want to use that scandium master alloy to make the ultimate alloy and to use it in their in end-use products so there are markets for this today and as soon as we can feed them, we’re gonna have a nice little business there we think in the very near future.

Bill-I wanna see if there’s any questions before you wrap up. Ok, um, you talked a bit about the finances getting close to the finish line. Yep. Or starting line depending on how you look at it or your point of view…um your construction timeline you pointed to..do you anticipate the company focused on that single project, or, are there other growth opportunities you are looking at, or perhaps vertical integration,  

Mark-Yeah, we are already demonstrating on the Scandium side, our desire to vertically integrate where it makes sense, but not just for the sake of vertical integration…but where the supply chain has gaps in it, we have lots of experience particularly in the rare earth space, making the rare earth metals, and making the rare earth permanent magnet alloys, where we can add value to the supply chain, we are very happy to do that, but we’re not going to just do it for the sake of doing it, so I do see scandium metal and Scandium master alloy. I see the actual scandium alloys that are used in in the world being part of our vertical integration. I can see us on the rare earth side going as far as metal because that is something that doesn’t occur at a very good scale today in the United States and if we need to do that, we can do that. So where we can, we will and Bill I’ve been around the block a couple of times with a different companies and in different acquisitions and what-not here and there I don’t like to sit still for very long, so we will not stop looking for good opportunities. I’ll leave it at that.

Bill-We are almost out of time any last thoughts for investors today?

Mark-The big one, these products are absolutely necessary in the United States today and four of them you can’t even buy outside of China today, so this is truly a critical strategic project for the country. We have the resources here, we have the capabilities of producing these products and becoming more self-sufficient. I don’t know that we’ll become 100% self-sufficient here, but every little bit helps when we’re in the geopolitical environment that we are in today, so we’re proud to be doing what we’re doing and we’re awfully anxious to get started.

Grok-Analysis: China’s November 10, 2026 Rare Earth Deadline + DoD’s January 1, 2027 Ban
(Tailored to IBC Advanced Alloys and NioCorp)

Key Clarifications

• IBC Advanced Alloys (OTCQB:IAALF): IBC focuses on beryllium alloys, copper alloys, and specialty materials (including aluminum-scandium alloys in partnership with NioCorp). This significantly reduces direct exposure to the REE magnet bans compared to magnet-dependent suppliers.
• NioCorp Developments Ltd. (NASDAQ: NB): Developing the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project in Nebraska. Primary planned outputs: niobium (ferroniobium), scandium (oxide and Al-Sc alloys), titanium. It is also evaluating production of several magnetic rare earth elements (e.g., neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium). The project has secured key permits, started mine portal construction (2026), and is advancing financing.

The Double Cliff (Nov 2026 + Jan 2027)

• Nov 10, 2026: Expiration of China’s suspension of stricter export controls (expanded REEs, 0.1% de minimis rule with extraterritorial reach). April 2025 controls on medium/heavy REEs remain active.
• Jan 1, 2027: DoD/DFARS prohibition on Chinese- or Russian-origin rare earth magnets and related materials in defense contracts (traceability back to mining/refining stages; no waivers expected for most programs).

The tight timeline amplifies pressure on defense and high-tech supply chains.

Impacts on IBC Advanced Alloys

Low-to-Moderate Direct Risk:

• Since IBC’s core products (copper-beryllium, other specialty alloys) do not incorporate rare earth magnets, the company avoids the most severe compliance headaches faced by magnet users/suppliers.
• Indirect Effects: Many IBC customers in aerospace, defense, and industrial sectors use REE magnets downstream. Supply chain disruptions, price spikes, or delays in magnets could slow overall demand or force customer redesigns, indirectly pressuring IBC volumes.
• Positive Tailwinds:
  • Scandium demand (lightweighting in aerospace/defense) is expected to rise as OEMs seek performance improvements amid REE constraints. IBC’s successful casting of aluminum-scandium alloys with NioCorp positions it well.
  • Broader push for non-Chinese supply chains favors Western/allied specialty alloy producers like IBC.
  • Potential opportunities in substitution or complementary materials for REE-heavy applications.

Net Outlook for IBC: Manageable disruption with strategic upside in scandium-related products. Focus on traceability, customer assurance, and scaling Al-Sc production will be key.

Impacts on NioCorp (Elk Creek Project)

Strong Strategic Positive — "this is one of the clearest Western beneficiaries of the double cliff":

• Niobium, Scandium, Titanium: All designated critical minerals. U.S. is heavily import-dependent. DoD and industrial policy strongly favor domestic sources. Scandium, in particular, benefits from defense/aerospace lightweighting needs.
• Rare Earth Potential: Elk Creek has the 2nd-largest indicated REE resource in the U.S. (behind MP Materials). If NioCorp adds magnetic REE production (Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb, etc.), it becomes a direct domestic alternative to Chinese supply exactly when the DoD ban and Chinese controls tighten. This could attract significant government support, offtake agreements, and financing.
• Current Momentum (mid-2026):
  • Mine portal construction underway (~$44.6M phase).
  • Substantial capital raised; pursuing full project financing (~$1.1B total capex).
  • Offtake/marketing agreements (e.g., with Traxys).
  • Prior DoD Title III funding for scandium.
• Risks: Execution/financing challenges remain. Full REE production requires additional feasibility work and investment. Project timelines may not deliver meaningful volumes before late 2029, missing the immediate Jan 2027 deadline but aligning with longer-term decoupling.

Net Outlook for NioCorp: Highly favorable policy environment. The Nov 2026 / Jan 2027 pressures act as a major catalyst for securing financing, offtakes, and potential government partnerships. Success in bringing Elk Creek online would make NioCorp a key part of the U.S. “mine-to-magnet” and critical minerals strategy.

Overall Market Context

The combination of deadlines reinforces a forcing function for Western supply chain diversification. While a full systemic collapse is unlikely, expect:

• Price premiums for compliant (non-Chinese) materials.
• Accelerated industrial policy (DPA Title III, stockpiles, allied sourcing).
• Volatility in the 12–24 months post-2026.

Bottom Line:
IBC faces limited direct hit and can capitalize on scandium opportunities (especially via NioCorp partnership). NioCorp is exceptionally well-positioned as a domestic producer of multiple critical minerals that the U.S. urgently needs to reduce China dependency. The deadlines create a compelling “policy wind at the back” for both companies, provided they execute on development and financing timelines.

These prices are so up and down...trades on news stories.

"Project Vault could be more than an emergency reserve; it could be a market-stability tool that denies China the ability to weaponize both scarcity and oversupply. In doing so, it could help establish the resilient mine-to-manufacturing supply chains needed to compete in the 21st century."

https://www.metaltechnews.com/story/2026/06/03/op-ed/the-hidden-strength-of-project-vault/2782.html

NioCorp Update on Facebook

Video update of progress on the Elk Creek Mine portal

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1D2txuQQMx/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Beijing's Current Heavy Rare Earth Restrictions Are a Permanent Strategic Shift, Not a Temporary Bargaining Tactic, NioCorp's Mark Smith Warns.

https://www.niocorp.com/china-is-closing-the-door-on-heavy-rare-earth-exports-for-good-niocorp-ceo-warns-in-fox-news-op-ed/

NioCorp's updated Feasibility Study (FS) for the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project (niobium, scandium, titanium, with potential rare earths) is a key de-risking and financing milestone. It builds on the 2022 FS and incorporates new drilling/assay results (from DoD-funded infill drilling), resource/reserve upgrades, metallurgical/process improvements, mine plan updates, and REE economic analysis.

Jim Sims' Timeline and "Done vs. Released"

Jim Sims (Chief Communications Officer) indicated the final/updated FS would be completed ("done") on or about April 2026. This aligns with earlier guidance from CEO Mark Smith and company updates targeting mid-to-late Q1 or Q2 2026 for finalization, following engineering work and assay integration.

• "Done" ≠ public release: This is accurate and standard in mining. A Feasibility Study (or updated DFS) is an internal technical/economic document prepared by qualified persons (QPs) and engineering firms. Before public disclosure:
  • It undergoes internal review, QP sign-off, and compliance checks (e.g., NI 43-101 for Canada, S-K 1300 for SEC).
  • Supporting Technical Report (or Summary) must be prepared and filed.
  • For financing diligence (e.g., EXIM Bank), the full study is shared confidentially with lenders, analysts, or partners first.
  • Public release often follows via news release + filed report, which can take weeks after "completion."

As of late May 2026, no public release of the full updated FS has occurred based on available information. The company continues referencing the 2022 FS in presentations and filings while noting ongoing update work.

Role of 3rd-Party Analysts before (and after) public release:

• Lenders/financiers (e.g., EXIM) and their independent technical reviewers digest the study as part of due diligence for debt financing.
• Equity analysts, banks, and consultants often receive access (under NDA) or review the public version promptly to issue notes, update models, and provide coverage. This helps market digestion and can influence valuation.
• Release typically triggers analyst commentary, which can amplify visibility (positive or mixed depending on NPV/IRR updates, capex, REE inclusion, etc.).

This step is normal and helps credibility with investors and capital providers.

Current Project Status (as of ~May 2026)

• Strong progress on execution/financing prep: ~$500M+ raised in 2025–early 2026; cash position built up significantly. Mine portal construction launched (Feb/March 2026, ~$44.6M budget, ~9 months). Land secured, permits in place.
• Offtake momentum: Non-binding Traxys agreement (April 2026) for remaining products → supports full commercial coverage for early years.
• EXIM/debt financing: Ongoing diligence; updated FS is a key input. Potential term sheet or advancements expected around this period.
• REE inclusion: Expected to be evaluated/quantified in the update (Elk Creek already has a large indicated REE resource, 2nd in the U.S. per 2022 data).
• 2022 FS baseline (for reference): ~$2.8B pre-tax NPV, 29.2% IRR, 38-year mine life, strong EBITDA margins (does not include REEs or some optimizations).

Risks/Realities: Mining projects face delays (technical, financing, market). The updated FS could show improved economics (from drilling uplift, process changes) or higher capex/inflation impacts. No guarantees on exact release date or outcomes. Always review latest SEC/Canadian filings and company disclosures.

Bottom line: The April 2026 target for completion fits the timeline, but public release + analyst digestion is the next visible step. This supports broader financing close and construction ramp. Monitor NioCorp's news page, SEDAR+/EDGAR, and investor communications for updates. For the latest, check directly with the company or recent presentations. Grok.

The slide rule (or log tables, or early calculators) could crank out a number with impressive precision — sometimes four, five, or more digits. But the competent engineer knew the inputs were often only accurate to two or three significant figures. Punching out 12 decimal places on a slide rule didn’t make your answer more correct; it just made you look foolish to anyone who understood the real world AI is the modern slide rule on steroids.

Today’s models can generate outputs with astonishing fluency and apparent precision:

• Beautifully formatted stress analysis
• Polished code
• Detailed project plans
• Confident-looking financial models

But they routinely:

• Hallucinate false assumptions
• Miss critical edge cases
• Apply the wrong model for the actual operating environment
• Ignore practical constraints that weren’t in the training data

Human judgment is what decides:

• How many significant figures (or confidence digits) the answer actually deserves
• Which parts of the AI output are trustworthy vs. dangerous bullshit
• When the entire problem has been framed incorrectly
• Whether the “optimal” solution is feasible, safe, maintainable, or even morally defensible in context

This is why experienced engineers still sketch on napkins or the back of an envelope first. They’re not rejecting the tools — they’re exercising judgment before feeding the problem into the high-precision machine.

The scarcity Jensen is talking aboutAs AI becomes ubiquitous, the people who can reliably say:

• “This number looks precise, but it’s only good to about ±30% because of X, Y, and Z”
• “I don’t trust the model here — we need field data”
• “This elegant solution will fail in practice for these human/organizational reasons”

…will be the ones who stand out. Everyone else will be producing impressive-looking but brittle work.

The slide rule didn’t make judgment obsolete. It made good judgment more valuable because bad judgment now produced faster, prettier mistakes.

Same story with AI — just at a much higher speed and scale.

 #IBCAdvancedAlloys #IBC #IAALF

FRANKLIN, Ind. – (May 28, 2026) – IBC Advanced Alloys Corp. (“IBC” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: IB; OTCQB: IAALF) is pleased to announce that certain of the Company’s U.S. subsidiaries (the “Subsidiaries”) have entered into an amendment (the “Amendment”) to the term loan (the “Term Loan”) with Loeb Term Solutions LLC (“Loeb”) dated October 26, 2023, secured by a credit and security agreement. Pursuant to the Amendment, the Term Loan, of which approximately US$916,000 remains outstanding, has been refinanced to increase the aggregate amount available to US$1,370,268 and extend the maturity date three years from the date of the Amendment. After the payment of certain fees and expenses, the Company expects to have additional loan proceeds of approximately US$424,000 available for working capital.

All other terms of the Term Loan remain as described in the Company’s press release dated October 26, 2023. The Amendment is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSX-V”).

For more information on IBC and its innovative alloy products, go here.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors:

"Mark A. Smith”

Mark A. Smith, CEO & Chairman of the Board

Al-Sc (aluminum-scandium) alloys have strong potential in robotics, particularly for AI-enabled and humanoid robots, where lightweighting, strength, fatigue resistance, and durability under repeated dynamic loads are critical. This aligns well with the "elephant in the room" scale of AI robotics growth.

Why Al-Sc Fits Robotics

Robotics—especially humanoid and advanced AI systems like Tesla Optimus, Boston Dynamics Atlas, or industrial arms—demand materials that:

• Minimize weight for better energy efficiency, agility, speed, and battery life (critical for mobile/humanoid platforms).
• Provide high strength-to-weight ratio and fatigue resistance for joints, frames, actuators, and structural components under millions of cycles of motion.
• Support complex geometries (via casting, extrusion, machining, or additive manufacturing).
• Offer good thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance, and weldability for reliable operation in varied environments.

Standard aluminum alloys (e.g., 6xxx or 7xxx series) are already widely used in robot frames, housings, and joints due to their low density (~1/3 of steel) and machinability. Al-Sc upgrades these with nanoscale Al₃Sc precipitates that deliver:

• Significantly higher yield strength and tensile properties.
• Superior fatigue and damage tolerance (key for vibrating, repetitive motions in robots).
• Better weldability and thermal stability.
• Enabling thinner/lighter designs or topology-optimized 3D-printed parts without sacrificing performance.

Market reports explicitly cite rising demand in robotics and automation as a growth driver for Al-Sc alloys, alongside aerospace and transportation. Enhanced tensile strength and fatigue resistance make them ideal for advanced robotic systems and automated machinery.

Applications in AI/Humanoid Robots

• Structural frames and chassis: Lightweight yet rigid bases to support actuators, sensors, and batteries while improving balance and endurance.
• Joints and linkages: High-cycle fatigue resistance for hips, knees, arms—humanoids need materials that endure constant motion.
• End-effectors and housings: Precision components benefiting from Al-Sc’s machinability and strength.
• Additive manufacturing: Al-Sc powders (e.g., Scalmalloy-like) enable complex, optimized lightweight parts hard to produce traditionally.

While current humanoids often use standard aluminum, magnesium-aluminum, carbon fiber, or polymers (like PEEK), premium Al-Sc offers a step up for high-performance or defense-oriented robots where reliability and weight savings justify the cost.

Market Potential Tie-In for NioCorp

The explosion in AI robotics (humanoids, collaborative robots, autonomous systems) could become a major demand driver for scandium, amplifying NioCorp’s Al-Sc master alloy opportunity:

• Scale: Projections for millions (or hypothetically billions) of robots would require vast lightweight materials. Even modest adoption of advanced Al alloys could consume significant scandium.
• Synergies: Pairs with NioCorp’s defense/aerospace focus—many advanced robots have dual-use (industrial + military) applications. U.S. domestic supply is strategically valuable.
• Growth tailwinds: Automation/robotics is listed as a key market expander for Al-Sc. Combined with EVs, drones, and aerospace, this supports the shift from today’s tiny scandium market to much larger volumes.

Challenges remain:

• Cost sensitivity in high-volume consumer/industrial robots (Al-Sc is premium).
• Competition from magnesium alloys, carbon fiber, and advanced polymers.
• Qualification timelines for new materials in production robots.
• Supply availability—NioCorp’s ~100 tpy Sc₂O₃ capacity could capture meaningful share if robotics ramps.

Bottom line: AI-enabled robots, especially humanoids, represent a compelling emerging market for Al-Sc. They amplify the structural lightweighting that is also needed in drones, potentially turning robotics into a significant "elephant" contributor to scandium demand. For NioCorp, successful execution on Elk Creek + master alloy production positions them to supply this high-value niche alongside defense and aerospace. This remains forward-looking and depends on broader adoption curves, but the technical fit is excellent. (Grok Enhanced)