Victory Metals has been approved as a member of the US Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC), providing the Australian-listed miner with direct access to the USdefence procurement system.
The acceptance enables the company to engage with the US Department of Defense funding programmes, prime contractors and downstream processors focused on critical minerals.
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DIBC is a public-private partnership designed to improve the capacity and reliability of the US defence supply chain.
It aims to identify and develop new capabilities, address supply chain risks, and support the extraction and processing of key minerals that are important to US national security priorities.
Victory Metals highlighted North Stanmore, its primary project, as containing all of the rare earth elements and strategic minerals currently subject to export restrictions by China, including dysprosium, terbium, yttrium, samarium, gadolinium and lutetium.
North Stanmore contains a JORC-compliant resource estimated at 321mt, which is expected to support operations for over 60 years.
Victory Metals also stated that this development supported its focus on building a diversified set of partnerships with the US.
It described North Stanmore as having a rare mineral profile shared by few projects globally.
DIBC’s remit includes advancing extraction and processing of critical minerals, improving technology for defence supply chains, and responding to vulnerabilities in sourcing important materials.
Victory Metals CEO and executive director Brendan Clark said: “Acceptance into the Defense Industrial Base Consortium is a significant strategic milestone for Victory. It provides direct access to the US defence procurement ecosystem at a time when the US is moving rapidly to secure non-Chinese supply of heavy rare earths and strategic minerals such as Hafnium & Scandium, both of which sit at the heart of the North Stanmore project.
“DIBC membership underscores the growing global recognition of North Stanmore as a strategically important Western aligned source of defence critical minerals. We look forward to engaging actively with DIBC members and pursuing funding, offtake and partnership opportunities that accelerate our pathway to production.”
