Ares Strategic Mining Inc. (CSE: ARS) (OTCQX: ARSMF) (FRA: N8I1) announced that commissioning of its Metallurgical Lumps Plant has officially started at the company's processing facility in Delta, Utah. For the first time, the entire processing plant has been powered up and is operating as one fully integrated system, marking the beginning of a four-week commissioning program.
The Lumps Plant is designed to process ore from the company's Lost Sheep Mine into metallurgical-grade fluorspar lumps ("metspar"), a product primarily supplied to U.S. steel industries. Over the coming weeks, Ares will undertake comprehensive integrated testing across all plant systems to verify performance, optimize operations, and prepare the facility for commercial production. Testing activities include verifying complete process flows from ore feed through to finished product; testing PLC control systems and HMI interfaces; monitoring and optimizing operating parameters such as temperatures, pressures and material flows; validating alarm systems, diagnostics and automated start-up and shutdown sequences; and assessing crushing, drying and product quality to ensure metallurgical-grade fluorspar meets customer specifications.
James Walker, President and CEO of Ares Strategic Mining, commented: "It's incredibly rewarding to see the entire Lumps Plant operating together for the first time. This is an exciting milestone for everyone involved with Ares and reflects years of planning, engineering and construction. Our focus now is on completing commissioning successfully and beginning production."
As commissioning progresses, fluorspar ore stockpiled at the Lost Sheep Mine will be transported to the Delta processing facility to support testing and initial ramp-up production runs. The company expects ramp-up production to begin on August 15, 2026. Ramp up refers to ramping up the feed to the full plant production potential.
According to the company’s press release of March 27, 2024, commercial offtake agreements are already in place covering the company's expected initial metspar production for the first five years. The Lumps Plant has a designed processing capacity of approximately 150,000 tonnes per annum, providing capacity to support increased mine output and expansion across the Lost Sheep Project and the wider Spor Mountain Range.
Walker added: "We've intentionally built infrastructure that extends well beyond our initial mining rate. As we continue developing additional fluorspar targets across our property, this processing capacity gives us a platform for future growth while supporting our objective of establishing a secure U.S. supply of this critical mineral."
The Lost Sheep Fluorspar Project, located in the Spor Mountain area of Juab County, Utah, is 100% owned by Ares and comprises 5,982 acres across 353 claims. The project is fully permitted, including mining permits, and an NI 43-101 Technical Report identified high-grade fluorspar with low levels of impurities. The mining plan was first approved by the Bureau of Land Management in 1992 and renewed in 2016.
This commissioning milestone is significant for the U.S. fluorspar industry, as Ares aims to become a major supplier of high-grade fluorspar to North American markets. The plant's capacity and existing offtake agreements position the company to reduce U.S. reliance on imported fluorspar, a critical mineral used in steelmaking, aluminum production, and the manufacture of fluorochemicals. For readers in the raw materials mining sector, this development signals a near-term increase in domestic fluorspar supply and potential stabilization of metspar pricing for U.S. steel mills.
A video of the plant operations is available at https://youtu.be/8CzwUTRsSOA. The original press release can be viewed on www.newmediawire.com.
