Ucore’s Pat Ryan Leads a Gulf Coast Gambit to Rebuild America’s Rare Earth Supply Chain

July 08, 2025 — Pat Ryan is betting that a cross-functional playbook—honed in Detroit’s auto plants and now redeployed on the Gulf Coast—can outrun Beijing’s tightening grip on rare earth know-how. “Capital is not going to get you anything unless you have the people with the expertise,” the Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSXV: UCU | OTCQX: UURAF) CEO told InvestorNews host Tracy Hughes, ticking off a string of recent hires: an operations veteran, a Ph.D. process-chemistry lead “who joined the team in the last two weeks,” and a project manager “who actually built an SX plant, both heavy and light.” Those additions anchor a company that—by design—intends to become, as Ryan put it, “very much an American story.”

Ucore’s ambitions rest on RapidSX™, a proprietary separation technology that has already logged “over 5,000 hours” on a Kingston, Ontario, demo line and just received a show-of-faith from the Pentagon. In May, the U.S. Department of Defense expanded its Other Transaction Agreement, layering US$18.4 million atop a previous US$4 million allocation. Ryan called it “about C$38 million added to the mix,” money earmarked for an 80,800-square-foot Strategic Metals Complex in Alexandria, Louisiana, slated to start shipping separated oxides in the first half of 2026.

Armed with that federal endorsement, Ucore moved quickly to thicken its own war chest. A June financing added C$15.5 million, lifting available funds to “over $50 million.” The timing, Ryan said, avoided “summer doldrums” and the market’s “China on-again, off-again” anxiety, positioning the company to pursue only “strategic equity” going forward.

Location is its own hedge. Alexandria sits inside a foreign-trade zone, giving the plant tariff insulation for concentrates shipped up the Mississippi, whether from “Brazil, Australia,” or elsewhere. “Critical rares are needed,” Ryan noted, adding that the Louisiana build-out will be modular, scalable, and buffered from Gulf hurricanes yet within “good freight in, good freight out” corridors.

Kingston remains the company’s laboratory—now doubled in size—where engineers are exploring “oddball” feedstocks such as samarium-rich concentrates banned from export by China.

Meanwhile, the visitor log hints at downstream traction: “twenty-nine visitors” in 2024, including potential offtake partners seeking REEs for magnets and “other uses” beyond motors.

Shareholders can expect, in the next quarter, an engineering schedule for Louisiana, specifics on South American and Australian supply agreements, and “three- and four-prong partnerships” linking feedstock, processing, alloying, and end users. Ryan’s view is blunt: “You don’t just (want to) have one-off transactional relationships (because they) don’t do a whole lot for building out the complete supply chain.”

To access the complete interview, click here

Don’t miss other InvestorNews interviews. Subscribe to the InvestorNews YouTube channel by clicking here

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 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.

To learn more about Ucore Rare Metals Inc., click here

Disclaimer: Ucore Rare Metals Inc. is an advertorial member of InvestorNews Inc.

This interview, which was produced by InvestorNews Inc. (“InvestorNews”), does not contain, nor does it purport to contain, a summary of all material information concerning the Company, including important disclosure and risk factors associated with the Company, its business and an investment in its securities. InvestorNews offers no representations or warranties that any of the information contained in this interview is accurate or complete.

This interview and any transcriptions or reproductions thereof (collectively, this “presentation”) does not constitute, or form part of, any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer to subscribe for or purchase any securities in the Company. The information in this presentation is provided for informational purposes only and may be subject to updating, completion or revision, and except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any information herein. This presentation may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and assumptions of the management of the Company as of the date made. They are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and other factors that could cause actual events/results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties, including those that the Company does not know about now or that it currently deems immaterial, may also adversely affect the Company’s business or any investment therein.

Any projections given are principally intended for use as objectives and are not intended, and should not be taken, as assurances that the projected results will be obtained by the Company. The assumptions used may not prove to be accurate and a potential decline in the Company’s financial condition or results of operations may negatively impact the value of its securities. This presentation should not be considered as the giving of investment advice by the Company or any of its directors, officers, agents, employees or advisors. Each person to whom this presentation is made available must make its own independent assessment of the Company after making such investigations and taking such advice as may be deemed necessary. Prospective investors are urged to review the Company’s profile on SedarPlus.ca and to carry out independent investigations in order to determine their interest in investing in the Company.