Ucore Accelerates Commercial Planning for Samarium and Gadolinium Oxides as Defense Supply Chains Face Urgent Shortages Ucore highlights:
– 1 –
Ucore Accelerates Commercial Planning for Samarium
and Gadolinium Oxides as Defense Supply Chains
Face Urgent Shortages
Ucore highlights:
• Government-backed scale -up: Further to the Company’s previously announced conditional
approval for up to C$36.3 million from the Government of Canada, Ucore is advancing engineering
and commercialization planning to scale a first-of-its-kind RapidSX™ commercial rare earth refining
facility dedicated to samarium (Sm) and gadolinium (Gd).
• Midstream is the choke point: Rare earth processing and separation capacity is the most acute
bottleneck in the mine-to-magnet chain and must be rebuilt on an urgent timeline to meet defense
requirements. Canada’s $6.6 billion Defence Industrial Strategy (Feb. 17) and the U.S. “Project
Vault” plan to establish $12 billion in strategic reserves of critical minerals, reduces reliance on
adversarial sources including Sm and Gd.
• Mission-critical demand: Fielded U.S. and allied weapon platforms including the F -35 fighter jet,
precision-guided missile guidance and actuation systems, and long -range cruise missiles depend
on samarium - and gadolinium -linked rare earth inputs where performance, reliability, an d heat
tolerance are mission-critical.
• Supply shock and qualification risk: Samarium and gadolinium availability is tightening into a
defense-industrial base vulnerability. China’s export licensing controls implemented in April 2025
on certain medium and heavy rare earth items continue to constrain Western defense and
aerospace supply chains and complicate qualification of alternative sources.
• Procurement clock is accelerating: U.S. defense procurement requirements are tightening
toward mine-to-magnet compliance by 2027, including DFARS restrictions that expand on January
1, 2027 to cover the entire supply chain for samarium -cobalt magnets, increasing urgency for
qualified, Western-aligned Sm and Gd supply.
• Non-China technology pathway: RapidSX™ is being engineered to operate without reliance on
China-sourced equipment or technology transfer which was banned by the State in October 2025,
supporting defense qualification requirements.
Halifax, Nova Scotia, March 6, 2026 Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSXV: UCU)
(OTCQX: UURAF) (“ Ucore” or the “Company”) today provided an
operational and commercialization update on its “Pathway to Samarium and
Gadolinium Security” project (the “Project”), focused on dedicated production planning
for samarium and gadolinium rare earth oxides for allied defense, aerospace, and
strategic industrial supply chains. The Project is being advanced in parallel with
Ucore’s ongoing scale-up toward the Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex (SMC) in
Alexandria.
Samarium and gadolinium have experienced significant price hikes with outsized
defense impact. Samarium is essential for high ‑performance samarium ‑cobalt (SmCo)
permanent magnets used in mission ‑critical applications where coercivity and
performance under temperature extremes are required, including guidance and control
systems, radar and sonar systems, and other defense electronics. Gadolinium is
included among the rare
Click or tap here to enter text.
– 2 –
Click or tap here to enter text.
earths now subject to export licensing constraints and has also been identified as a priority
material in recent U.S. defense supply chain actions.
The supply chain context has sharpened further in 2026. On March 1, 2026, the U.S.
Department of Defense requested proposals to increase domestic production of a list of
critical minerals that includes both samarium and gadolinium. In parallel, U.S. defens e
procurement restrictions impacting covered magnets tighten materially on January 1,
2027, expanding to the full upstream supply chain for samarium ‑cobalt magnets.
Together, these actions underscore a narrowing timeline for defense contractors to qualify
secure, Western‑aligned sources of Sm and Gd inputs.
Operational update: RapidSX™ engineering and CDF testwork progressing
Ucore’s engineering team is progressing commercial plans for dedicated production of
Sm and Gd rare earth oxides. At the Kingston CDF, process flow sheets are being refined,
contactor factory acceptance testing is underway to optimize the RapidSX ™
computerized, column‑based separation platform, and multiple feedstocks, including ionic
clays, have been processed to evaluate separation behavior and chemical “splits”
achieved between Sm and Gd as part of the production work‑up.
RapidSX™ was designed to operate without reliance on Chinese ‑sourced equipment or
technology transfer. Ucore’s approach is intended to support Western qualification
requirements and to help rebuild North American midstream capacity, the separation and
refining bottleneck that sits between mined or recovered rare ear th feedstocks and
downstream metallization and magnet production.
“Defense programs do not fail at the front end, they fail at the choke points, ” said Pat
Ryan, Chairman and CEO of Ucore. “Samarium and gadolinium are exactly that kind of
choke point. Contractors are being pushed to qualify non ‑covered‑nation supply chains
ahead of the 2027 compliance cliff, while Chinese export licensing remains a structural
constraint. Ucore is advancing a dedicated Sm and Gd refining pathway to support allied
readiness timelines.”
Since the company’s public award of the Project at the G7 Economic Summit in October
2025, Ucore has seen rising inbound interest from defense and aerospace supply chain
participants seeking qualification data, production timelines, and commercial structures
that can support procurement and stockpile requirements.
# # #
About Ucore Rare Metals Inc.
Ucore is focused on rare- and critical-metal resources, extraction, beneficiation, and separation
technologies with the potential for production, growth, and scalability. Ucore’s vision and plan
– 3 –
Click or tap here to enter text.
is to become a leading advanced technology company, providing best-in-class metal separation
products and services to the mining and mineral extraction industry.
Through strategic partnerships, this plan includes disrupting the People’s Republic of China’s
control of the North American REE supply chain through the near-term development of a heavy
and light rare-earth processing facility in the US State of Louisiana, subsequent SMCs in Canada
and Alaska and the longer -term development of Ucore’s 100% controlled Bokan-Dotson Ridge
Rare Heavy REE Project on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska, USA (“Bokan”).
Ucore is listed on the TSXV under the trading symbol “UCU” and in the United States on the OTC
Markets’ OTCQX® Best Market under the ticker symbol “UURAF.”
For further information, please visit www.ucore.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed “forward -looking
statements” . All statements in this release (other than statements of historical facts) that
address future business development, technological development and/or acquisition activities
(including any related required financings), timelines, events, or developments that the
Company is pursuing are forward -looking statements. Although the Company believes the
expectations expressed in such forward -looking statements are based on reasonable
assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance or results, and actual
results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements.
Regarding the disclosure in the press release above about government support for Ucore, the
Company has assumed that the applicable projects (including each of the associated
milestones) will be completed satisfactorily and in accordance with the respective agreements
or letters of intent (as applicable) for such government support. For additional risks and
uncertainties regarding the Company, its business activities, its ability to qualify for and receive
any additional funding from any U.S. or Canadian government, the CDF and the aforementioned
projects (generally), see the risk disclosure in the Company’s MD&A for Q3 -2025 (filed on
SEDAR+ on November 25, 2025) (www.sedarplus.ca) as well as the risks described below.
Regarding the disclosure above in the “About Ucore Rare Metals Inc. ” section, the Company has
assumed that it will be able to procure or retain additional partners and/or suppliers, in addition
to Innovation Metals Corp. (“ IMC”), as suppliers for Ucore’s expected future SMCs. Ucore has
also assumed that sufficient external funding will be found to continue and complete the ongoing
research and development work required at the CDF and also later prepare a new National
Instrument 43-101 technical report that demonstrates that Bokan is feasible and economically
viable for the production of both REE and co -product metals and the then prevailing market
prices based upon assumed customer offtake agreements. Ucore has also assumed that
sufficient external funding w ill be secured to continue the development of the specific
engineering plans for the SMCs and their construction and eventual commissioning and
operations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward -
looking statement s include, without limitation: IMC failing to protect its intellectual property
rights in RapidSX ™; RapidSX™ failing to demonstrate commercial viability in large commercial -
scale applications; Ucore not being able to procure additional key partners or suppliers for the
– 4 –
Click or tap here to enter text.
SMCs; Ucore not being able to raise sufficient funds to fund the specific design and construction
of the SMCs and/or the continued development of RapidSX™; adverse capital-market conditions;
unexpected due-diligence findings; the emergence of alternative superior metallurgy and metal-
separation technologies; the inability of Ucore and/or IMC to retain its key staff members; a
change in the legislation in Lo uisiana or Alaska and/or in the support expressed by the Alaska
Industrial Development and Export Auth ority (AIDEA) regarding the development of Bokan; the
availability and procurement of any required interim and/or long -term financing that may be
required; and general economic, market or business conditions.
Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined by the TSXV) accept
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
CONTACTS
Mr. Michael Schrider, P .E., Ucore Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, is responsible
for the content of this news release and may be contacted at 1.902.482.5214.
For additional information, please contact:
Mark MacDonald
Vice President, Investor Relations
Ucore Rare Metals Inc.
1.902.482.5214