Still very underwater but was able to lower my avg price from $5.15 to $4.55.
Not a small position for me. Planning to hold for a while. I owned UUUU for 7 years (8 bagger) and hope for a similar return here but in less time.
Simple thesis here. The need for REE will never go away and our reliance on China is unsustainable. The midstream refining is the critical stage and the bottleneck.
Share your thoughts on Ucore and its position in the Critical Minerals space.
Most recent official Ucore news/announcements.
As applicable, please keep commentary on topic and focused. This is a forum for UCU/UURAF investors to discuss any and all matters related to the company, individual positions, and yes, if you must, the inherently volatile share price in this burgeoning new industry in the west.
Welcome, glad to have you aboard -- looking forward to a productive 2026 and beyond for Ucore and its shareholders.
I went down a rabbit hole on rare earths and pulled the actual figures (USGS, IEA, Adamas, European Commission). The history is stranger than the headlines:
- The neodymium magnet was invented in ~1982 by a General Motors team and a Japanese team almost simultaneously. GM built the magnet business (Magnequench) in Indiana.
- In 1995 GM sold it to a Chinese-led consortium for about $70M. When the jobs commitment expired, the equipment and know-how moved to China.
- China's share of world production went from roughly 21% (1985) to 60% (1995). Mountain Pass, the California mine that once supplied most of the planet, shut in 2002.
- The real moat was never the mining. It is separation: solvent extraction, stage after stage, plus thorium (radioactive) handling. That is what takes a decade and billions to build, and it is why other countries dug ore and still shipped it to China.
- Today: ~91% of refining and ~94% of finished magnets are Chinese. For the heavy elements (dysprosium, terbium) it is close to total.
- The bit that broke my brain: the entire global rare-earth trade is only about $10-15B a year, smaller than one big tech company's quarterly profit, yet it sits underneath trillions of dollars of cars, weapons, wind turbines and electronics. Enormous leverage per dollar.
- 2010 was the warning: China halted exports to Japan for ~2 months, dysprosium spiked ~5x to ~$1,400/kg. The US/EU/Japan won at the WTO in 2014 and it barely mattered, because quotas were never the weapon: refining was. Molycorp raised ~$400M to reopen Mountain Pass, spent $1B+ on acquisitions, and went bankrupt in 2015 owing ~$1.5B when prices fell. The mine later sold for ~$20M.
Where it stands now: Australia (Lynas) is the only major refiner outside China, Japan is trialling rare earths from deep-sea mud, a big share of China's heavy REE is actually mined in Myanmar, the EU passed hard 2030 targets in 2024, and the Pentagon took a 15% stake plus a price floor in Mountain Pass's owner. But analysts still expect ~90% dependence on China for heavy REE and magnets in 2030.
Genuinely curious what people who work in mining/processing think: is Western separation capacity actually buildable this decade, or is the permitting + chemistry + capital wall too high? And does the price floor model (government guaranteeing a floor so China can't crash the market) actually work?
Share your thoughts on Ucore and its position in the Critical Minerals space.
Most recent official Ucore news/announcements.
As applicable, please keep commentary on topic and focused. This is a forum for UCU/UURAF investors to discuss any and all matters related to the company, individual positions, and yes, if you must, the inherently volatile share price in this burgeoning new industry in the west.
Welcome, glad to have you aboard -- looking forward to a productive 2026 and beyond for Ucore and its shareholders.
The August 6 share offering announcement says the C$60M bought deal includes an order from “a leading fundamental global institutional investor.”
Could that potentially be sumitomo?
Theres been no Namedrop, but who do you suspect it could be?
Good to see the company moving
Engineering: https://ucore.com/ucore-verifies-louisiana-rapidsx-equipment-scale-up-configurations/
Financing: https://ucore.com/ucore-announces-60-million-bought-deal-public-offering-of-common-shares/
They need Machine A to prove RapidSX commercially, they need money to build Machine A, they meet DOW criteria by being able to fund themselves and have machine A built. It actually opens the door for more DOW support, not less. Economic viability was always the issue in the criteria list for Ucore, this can change that.
Ucore is not facing the same type of scrutiny as ReElement, and investors should view the two companies with distinct levels of skepticism. While both are highly speculative, pre-revenue tech ventures in a risky sector, they are fundamentally different in how they handle their finances, government relations, and technical transparency.Why Ucore’s Corporate Scrutiny Differs From ReElement’s
No Vetting Failures or Rejected LoansUnlike ReElement—which withdrew from its $80 million Pentagon loan after failing to survive rigorous due diligence by the Office of Strategic Capital—Ucore’s relationship with the government has actively expanded. The Department of War accepted Ucore’s Phase 1 Final Report and its Techno-Economic Assessment, leading to an increase in their active contract funding to $22.4 million. Ucore did not trigger the same technical or financial "red flags" that disqualified ReElement.
Fully Audited Financial DisclosuresWhile ReElement’s parent company (AREC) used accounting moves to "deconsolidate" ReElement and obscure its losses, Ucore is a standard, publicly traded corporation (TSXV: UCU / OTCQX: UURAF).Ucore files regular, audited financial statements and SEC filings.Its balance sheet and cash burn rates are fully visible, with their next earnings report publicly scheduled.There is no hidden corporate shell game.
Institutional Validation over Press ReleasesReElement announced its milestones through independent press releases while keeping its capital backers private. In contrast, Ucore announced a $60 million bought deal public offering. A "bought deal" means that an institutional underwriting investment firm agreed to buy the entire block of shares themselves before selling them to the public. Wall Street institutional firms do not commit $60 million of their own capital without aggressively vetting the target's underlying technical data rooms.
Heavy vs. Light Rare Earth Chemistry ReElement declared "commercial success" after refining germanium, which is a completely different chemical process than separating rare earths. Ucore, conversely, has published physical proof of actual rare earth separation, having successfully shipped 99.9% pure dysprosium oxide (a highly complex heavy rare earth) to international allied market customers for official qualification.
Should Investors Still Be Skeptical of Ucore? Yes, but for entirely different reasons. You should not be skeptical of Ucore because of fraud, hidden books, or government rejection. Instead, your skepticism should focus on execution risk, timing, and structural macroeconomics. The Commissioning Bottleneck: Moving from the Canadian demonstration facility to building the physical Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex (SMC) is an ongoing capital project. Until that refinery is consistently churning out thousands of tons a year, it is a speculative asset. No Active Mine Production: Ucore relies on supply networks with partners like Sumitomo Corporation of Americas to feed its refinery. If a supply partner fails to deliver raw material, Ucore's refinery cannot produce. Pre-Revenue Volatility: Ucore is operating at a net loss while building its infrastructure. The stock remains highly volatile and reacts heavily to external macroeconomic pressures and shifting commodity prices.
How the prices of Ucore and AREC work out for all?