Proposed Nebraska mine might produce more rare elements

By JOSH FUNK
AP Business Writer

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The company working to build a mine in southeast Nebraska to extract a rare element used to make steel lighter and stronger said Tuesday it may also be able to produce some of the key ingredients needed to make the powerful magnets used in electric vehicles. NioCorp Developments released a new report showing that those rare earth elements are present throughout the deposit it plans to mine if it can raise roughly $1 billion to build the project about 80 miles south of Omaha. But the company won’t know for sure whether it can economically produce those rare earth elements until it does some additional analysis over the next few months.