In light of the recently announced investment deal between Molymet of Chile and U.S. Rare Earths miner Molycorp, which has significant strategic implications outlined by our very own Daniel McGroarty this weekend, it is only fitting that American Resources continues our ongoing educational campaign to highlight the breadth of U.S. mineral needs by designating “rhenium” as metal of the month for February.

Rhenium is a specialty metal highly relevant to the aviation industry as part of high-temperature superalloys used in the manufacture of jet engines, as well as the chemical industry.  While not a Rare Earth Element (REE) itself, rhenium is extremely scarce in the earth’s crust and is almost exclusively recovered in very limited quantities as a byproduct of molybdenum and copper refinement.

With the U.S.’s foreign import dependency rate currently standing at 86% for its rhenium supply and China and Kazakhstan topping the list of our foreign supplier nations, the element has all the makings of a critical mineral from a U.S. point of view.  The Department of Defense (DoD) has taken note, the question is – will our policy makers?

Stay tuned for more for rhenium-related updates on blog, as well as on Twitter and Facebook throughout the month of February.