WSE’s Pick of the Week: ARES STRATEGIC MINING

Delta Opens the Door & Cuts the Ribbon on America’s First New Fluorspar Lumps Plant. Federal, state and industry leaders will gather in Utah on October 9 as a fully permitted mine and a purpose-built plant finally sit on the same domestic supply chain.

Let that sink in! On Friday morning in Delta, Utah, a ribbon will be cut on something the United States has not had for a generation: a working, company-built path from a domestic fluorspar mine to finished metallurgical product.

Ares Strategic Mining Inc. (CSE: ARS; OTCQX: ARSMF; FRA: N811) will host an official ceremony at 11:00 a.m. on October 9, 2026, at the ARES Processing Facility, formally opening the company’s new Lumps Plant.

The plant takes run-of-mine ore from the fully permitted Lost Sheep Mine, in the Spor Mountain district of Juab County, and turns it into industry-ready metallurgical-grade fluorspar metspar - the flux steelmakers and aluminum producers have long had to import.

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Why now?

Ore is already moving. Trucks are hauling Lost Sheep material into Delta, live feed is entering the circuit, and the operations team is tuning the plant to the ore it is actually mining. Friday is the public marker of that shift, from years of permitting, engineering and construction to a mine-to-plant operation on American ground.

“We have reached the moment when years of permitting, mine development, engineering, construction and financing have become a working U.S. mine-to-plant operation,” said James Walker, President and CEO. “Ore is being mined, trucked to our facility and run through the plant. Friday gives us the opportunity to recognize the team, shareholders, public-sector partners and local community who helped turn that plan into physical infrastructure. For Ares, this is the beginning of an entirely new chapter.”

Who is in the room?

An unbelievable guest list! Confirmed attendees include U.S. Representative Mike Kennedy Carson Brown from the office of U.S. Senator John Curtis; Utah State Senator David P. Hinkins, Emy Lesofski, Director of the Utah Office of Energy Development; Dana Dean, Acting Director of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining; James Walker, President and CEO of Ares Strategic Mining; and Peter Godart, President and CEO of Found Industries.

Scheduled speakers are Peter Godart, Representative Mike Kennedy, James Walker and a federal government representative. Ares is also coordinating attendance from the U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and the Defense Logistics Agency, with final names still to be announced.

The guest list is the point. A lumps plant in Millard County only matters if Washington, the state capitol and the customers who consume flux all see the same asset.

Utah wrote the project into the statute book

The ceremony will also mark the state’s role in getting the facility built. In the 2025 General Session, the Utah Legislature broadened the legal definition of a “throughput infrastructure project” so that it covers infrastructure required to extract and process critical minerals. Ares subsequently received an $11 million state-supported loan through the Utah Community Impact Board to advance its Utah operations.

“The support we have received in Utah has allowed Ares to move from plans and engineering drawings to mine development, processing infrastructure and physical production,” Walker said. “We are proud to celebrate this milestone in Delta with many of the people and organizations that have supported the project, and we look forward to showing what has been built.”

Lost Sheep itself is 100 percent owned: 5,982 acres and 353 claims, about 214 kilometres southwest of Salt Lake City, fully permitted, including a mining plan approved by the Bureau of Land Management. An NI 43-101 technical report identified extensive high-grade fluorspar with low levels of impurities.

Lumps first, acidspar next

The Lumps Plant is the first processing piece of a wider Utah plan, not the last. Ares is also advancing a complementary acidspar flotation plant, intended to produce higher-purity acid-grade fluorspar for chemical, technology, energy and strategic-material uses. Friday opens the metallurgical gate. The flotation plant is the next one.

With mining underway, ore on the road to Delta and the lumps circuit in live-material operations, the ribbon cutting is the formal public line between development and an operating mine-and-processing business. We're excited to watch this won, and its our Worthy Endeavor of the Week, 5th October 2026.

Not financial advice. Do your own research before investing. Promotional article.