RE: Rare earth refiner gets $500M loan from Pentagon18 Jun 2026 10:43
In May, at the 121 Mining Investment Conference in London, Ivan Murphy recorded an interview for an episode of the Assay Podcast called "Rare Earths: Strategic Priority, Investable Reality?" It's available on YouTube.
At 7.45 mins of 24.32, the interviewer asks where potential projects get stuck. Ivan Murphy replies:
"We looked at projects recently in another country, which seemed great, but when we actually visited and we looked at it, it wasn't great. You could never separate them, it was never going to work, there wasn't enough of them. You were never going to get permitting. But on the headline it looked, Well, that could be interesting. So we're not doing that."
What does that refer to? Could it be the Exclusivity Agreement with Paradigm Critical Minerals (RNS dated 16 March 2026)?