OMAHA, Neb. -- A mining company that wants to extract an assortment of rare elements from southeast Nebraska has announced an agreement that will provide up to $285 million to help cover the roughly $1.1 billion cost of building the mine.
NioCorp Developments Ltd. also signed letters of intent to borrow up to $81 million from Yorkville Advisors Global LP. So NioCorp could get as much as $366 million to finance the mining project. The Centennial, Colo.-based company also announced Monday its acquisition of GX Acquisition Corp. II.
NioCorp CEO Mark Smith said: "These transactions have the potential to put NioCorp on the fast track to obtain the required project financing."
The main element NioCorp plans to produce at the mine -- located about 80 miles south of Omaha, Neb., near the town of Elk Creek -- is heat-resistant niobium. It also plans to mine scandium and titanium at the site, according to the company.
The company has said that sample analysis from the mining site also shows a significant amount of rare earth elements, more of which President Joe Biden wants to produce domestically.
But NioCorp says it' not yet sure whether it will be economically feasible to produce some of those elements, which are used to create strong magnets for a variety of high-tech products like electric vehicles and cell phones.
Biden has said the United States needs to reduce its dependence on foreign suppliers of critical minerals. China is the world's biggest producer of rare earth elements.
Dean Kehler, co-chairman and CEO of GX Acquisition Corp. II said NioCorp should be able to help with Biden's goal if it can raise the rest of the money it needs to begin producing niobium, scandium and possibly rare earth elements.
"We believe NioCorp is well-positioned to be a reliable, U.S.-based supplier that will produce these products on a sustainable basis," Kehler said.
It won't be clear exactly how much money this transaction will give NioCorp until the deal closes, which is expected early next year. Some investors still could pull their money out of the GX Acquisition Corp. II fund.
GX Acquisition Corp. II is one of the risky shell companies -- essentially, a blank check company created solely to merge with another business to invest in it -- that became popular on Wall Street in recent years before many of them fell out of favor and had to be liquidated without ever completing a transaction.
While such shell companies are often used to help companies go public, NioCorp is already a publicly traded company, but this deal is expected to give it a listing on the Nasdaq, which would help it attract more investors. NioCorp has been actively exploring the Nebraska site since 2013, and it has raised more than $80 million.
The proposed mine is expected to create over 400 jobs, if it is built.
The U.S. imports all the niobium and scandium and most of the titanium and rare earths elements that NioCorp hopes to produce. There is only one American mine that produces rare earths now at a site in California.
NioCorp says its deposit of rare earth elements is second only to that Mountain Pass mine that MP Materials Corp. runs in California.