Ares Strategic Mining Inc. (CSE: ARS) (OTCQX: ARSMF) (FRA: N8I1) announced Tuesday the completion of two critical infrastructure components at its Lost Sheep Fluorspar Processing Facility in Utah: the conveyor belt system and the electrical and Motor Control Center (MCC) systems. These milestones bring the company closer to commissioning and production at a time when the U.S. is seeking to secure domestic supplies of fluorspar, a mineral essential for semiconductor manufacturing, fluorochemicals, nuclear fuel processing, steel and aluminum production, and defense applications.
The newly installed systems include the full conveyor network for material handling, the facility-wide electrical distribution network, and the MCC systems that control and distribute power across the plant. The conveyor system enables continuous ore movement between crushing, sorting, and processing stages, while the MCC provides centralized power distribution, process control, and equipment protection. Both are foundational for industrial-scale operations.
“The completion of the conveyor and MCC systems is one of the most important construction milestones we have achieved to date,” said James Walker, President and CEO of Ares Strategic Mining. “These are not cosmetic additions — they are the central nervous system of the processing facility. Without these systems, industrial-scale processing cannot occur. Their completion marks a huge leap toward operational readiness and future production.”
The company noted that the MCC infrastructure controls and distributes power across the entire plant, enables synchronized operation of processing equipment, supports future automation and scalability, and provides industrial-grade reliability and safety. The conveyor system reduces operating downtime and labor requirements while ensuring consistent feed rates for optimized processing performance.
With mining operations already underway and ore stockpiling ongoing, the completion of these systems substantially de-risks the project and positions Ares to accelerate final mechanical installations and commissioning activities. The company is aiming to become the leading domestic supplier of acidspar in the United States.
Fluorspar is designated a critical mineral by the U.S. government. The Lost Sheep project, located in the Spor Mountain area of Juab County, Utah, is fully permitted and comprises 5,982 acres with 353 claims. A NI 43-101 technical report identified extensive high-grade fluorspar with low levels of impurities.
“You cannot operate a modern processing facility without these systems,” Walker added. “This is foundational infrastructure — the kind of progress that transforms a construction project into an operating industrial facility.”
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