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Idaho Strategic Announces its Plans for the 2025 Rare Earth Elements Exploration Field Season in Alignment with President Trump’s Recent Executive Order
The Company plans for its busiest exploration season to-date in 2025 targeting rare earth elements ("REE") and thorium ("Th") at its expansive land holdings in central Idaho
All three projects: Lemhi Pass, Mineral Hill, and Diamond Creek are included in the U.S.' National REE Inventory and located in Idaho's well-known and underexplored REE-Th Belt
IDR believes its projects are well suited for President Trump's recent Executive Order titled, "Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production in the United States"
COEUR D'ALENE, IDAHO / ACCESS Newswire / March 25, 2025 / Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc. (NYSE American:IDR) ("IDR", "Idaho Strategic" or the "Company") is pleased to announce its exploration plans for the 2025 exploration field season at its three rare earth elements and thorium projects, each of which are largely located in central Idaho within Idaho's 70-mile long REE-Th Belt (Figure 1).
Although Idaho Strategic has been planning its 2025 exploration programs for many months now, the timing to announce the Company's plans serendipitously coincides with President Trump's recent Executive Order titled, "Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production in the United States", announced late last week. The Executive Order directs government agencies to immediate action to facilitate domestic mineral production to the maximum extent possible by identifying and encouraging mineral development on Federal lands, and by streamlining the Federal permitting process.
Idaho Strategic's management believes that its strategic first mover advantage and track record as an operator within the state of Idaho and the importance of its rare earth elements and thorium projects aligns well with President Trump's strategy to unlock the mineral potential of the United States. The Company's exploration plans for each of its projects in 2025 are summarized below:
Lemhi Pass (Figure 2)
Building on successful exploration results that yielded up to 5% total rare earth oxides (TREO) including magnet REEs in excess of 70%, Idaho Strategic is planning a widespread radiometric survey over known REE and Th occurrences coinciding with an extensive soil sampling initiative. The combination of both radiometrics and soil sampling allows for the identification of potential drill targets and initial ground truthing of those targets to help prioritize the order in which follow-on exploration and investment should logically occur. Lemhi Pass will receive the bulk of the Company's attention given its favorable locations for a potential mine, its positive exploration results to-date, and its favorable REE mix showing a unique enrichment of higher-value magnet REEs compared to many projects globally.
Mineral Hill (Figure 3)
The plan for IDR's Mineral Hill project is to fly drone assisted radiometric, magnetic, and lidar mapping over the Company's entire claim block. This program is designed to identify and assist in planning for potential future drill targets. As the project sits, Idaho Strategic has already identified areas that warrant drilling, such as the Upper Roberts occurrence that returned multiple samples between 20% and 34% TREO at the surface. However, surface mapping of other areas within the Company's claim block have revealed previously unknown carbonatite occurrences with high-grade REEs at the surface. The completion and interpretation of the drone survey data will allow the Company to plan a more cost effective and comprehensive drill program in the future to test multiple areas and help to reduce drill mobilization fees associated with the project's variable terrain.
Diamond Creek
Given the success of Idaho Strategic's 2022 trenching and drilling program at its Diamond Creek project, the Company's geologists have planned and permitted a follow-up trenching program (with the optionality to drill) at a number of occurrences along strike from the favorable results obtained in 2022. The program is designed to extend the strike length of the historic resource outlined by M.H. Staatz of the United States Geological Survey in 1979, which was based on limited surface exploration work and covered approximately half of the strike length identified to-date by Idaho Strategic geologists. While the historic resource at Diamond Creek is not compliant with modern 43-101 or S-K 1300 resource standards, it is a great starting point for Idaho Strategic's geologists to build from.
Idaho Strategic's CEO and President, John Swallow stated, "It is an extremely busy and exciting time for our Company and our industry. In light of President Trump's latest Executive Order - and our strategic focus on gold production and critical minerals exploration - we feel we are well positioned to benefit from the new administration's efforts to develop American resources and reshore American jobs.
We see this Executive Order as a real world ‘value-add' component to project analysis in both timing and certainty. For the project owner, the ability to positively address the ‘drill hole to production to final product' value proposition is important in any discussion. And mitigating the ‘permitting challenge' topic obviously changes the tone of the discussion for all the players at the table.
I have long believed that a time would come when we would be strongly compelled to rebuild the American production base from the 1950s and given the steps this administration has taken over the past couple of months, I believe that we are in the midst of some version of that. At IDR we are especially proud of the mineral endowment of the state of Idaho and recognize what this Executive Order could do to maximize the value of our projects and help provide a domestic solution to our country's import reliance for rare earth elements."
Figure 1: Idaho REE-Th Belt
Figure 2: Lemhi Pass Radiometrics and Soil Sampling Program
Figure 3: Mineral Hill Magnetics, Radiometrics, and Lidar Survey Area
About Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc.
Idaho Strategic Resources (IDR) is an Idaho-based gold producer which also owns the largest rare earth elements land package in the United States. The Company's business plan was established in anticipation of today's volatile geopolitical and macroeconomic environment. IDR finds itself in a unique position as the only publicly traded company with growing gold production and significant blue-sky potential for rare earth elements exploration and development in one Company.
This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended that are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by forward-looking words such as "intends", "potential", "believe", "plans", "expects", "may", "goal', "assume", "estimate", "anticipate", and "will" or similar words suggesting future outcomes, or other expectations, beliefs, assumptions, intentions, or statements about future events or performance. Forward-looking information includes, but are not limited to, the potential for Idaho Strategic to conduct one or more of the exploration programs listed in this press release, the potential for its exploration results to warrant a follow-on drill program or additional exploration, the potential schedule changes and unforeseeable contractor errors, and the potential for unforeseen regulatory or permitting challenges. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of Idaho Strategic Resources as of the date such information is provided and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of IDR to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Investors should note that IDR's claim as the largest rare earth elements landholder in the U.S. is based on the Company's internal review of publicly available information regarding the rare earth landholdings of select companies within the U.S., which IDR is aware of. Investors are encouraged not to rely on IDR's claim as the largest rare earth elements landholder in the U.S. while making investment decisions. The forward-looking statement information above, and those following are applicable to both this press release, as well as the links contained within this press release. With respect to the business of Idaho Strategic Resources, these risks and uncertainties include risks relating to widespread epidemics or pandemic outbreaks; interpretations or reinterpretations of geologic information; the accuracy of historic estimates; unfavorable exploration results; inability to obtain permits required for future exploration, development or production; general economic conditions and conditions affecting the industries in which the Company operates; the uncertainty of regulatory requirements and approvals; fluctuating mineral and commodity prices; the ability to obtain necessary future financing on acceptable terms; the ability to operate the Company's projects; and risks associated with the mining industry such as economic factors (including future commodity prices, and energy prices), ground conditions, failure of plant, equipment, processes and transportation services to operate as anticipated, environmental risks, government regulation, actual results of current exploration and production activities, possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, permitting timelines, capital and construction expenditures, reclamation activities. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from this forward‐looking information is available in Idaho Strategic Resources filings with the SEC on EDGAR. IDR does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or other such factors which affect this information, except as required by law.
