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Wright Delivers Remarks at NioCorp's Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project in Nebraska, Oct. 15, 2026

October 15, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:07:54

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright delivered remarks at NioCorp’s Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project in southeast Nebraska, in the Department of Energy’s upload of the visit, titled October 15, 2026. Wright toured the construction site with Export-Import Bank Chairman John Jovanovic, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen, Senators Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts, and Representative Adrian Smith, and received briefings on the project’s planned niobium, scandium, titanium, and rare earth production, according to NioCorp.

Wright framed the mine as a national security project. “We have to fix this. We can’t just talk about it, write a few papers and hand it off to the next administration. We have to act. This is our national security that’s underground here,” he said of the outsourced critical minerals supply, as reported from the event. The visit came as the Export-Import Bank continues reviewing NioCorp’s application for debt financing under its Make More in America initiative, and a day after NioCorp announced a definitive agreement under which Traxys North America will purchase 50 percent of the project’s planned ferroniobium production for 15 years, bringing all of the project’s planned production under commercial agreements for its first 15 years, according to the company.

Why it matters

Elk Creek is the kind of project the administration’s critical minerals policy is built around: a domestic mine, under construction, with its output already sold and a federal financing review under way — and the Energy Secretary on site to say the government intends to see it finished.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project as presented October 2026 — Export-Import Bank financing still under review, planned production fully committed under commercial agreements for the first 15 years, per NioCorp. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Delivers Remarks in Nebraska at Elk Creek Mine” (official upload, embedded above); NioCorp Developments announcements, October 12–13, 2026; Lincoln Journal Star reporting of the visit.