Ares Strategic Mining Inc. has commenced trucking fluorspar ore from its Lost Sheep Mine in Utah to its Delta processing facility, where live material has begun entering the Metallurgical Lumps Plant for processing.

The arrival and feeding of mined ore marks a shift from surface stockpiling reported in February 2026 to integrated mine-to-plant operations. Ares is conducting a live-material ramp-up phase over the coming week to tune and optimize the lumps plant using actual mineral characteristics rather than theoretical feed parameters before moving toward sustained production rates.

The operations connect the two principal components of the Utah project following years of underground development, infrastructure construction, and plant commissioning. The metallurgical lumps plant is designed to manufacture metallurgical-grade fluorspar for industrial applications, while Ares is also advancing an adjacent flotation plant to produce higher-purity acid-grade fluorspar.

“There is an enormous difference between constructing and commissioning a plant and actually seeing trucks of your own ore arriving and that material entering the processing circuit. We have now connected the mine to the plant. This is the physical supply chain we have spent years building. Over the next week, our engineers and operators will use real Lost Sheep material to fine-tune the plant and understand exactly how the ore behaves through each stage of the process. We can optimize around the material we are actually mining rather than theoretical feed characteristics. Every truckload gives our team more operating information and takes us another step toward establishing consistent production.”

— James Walker, President and Chief Executive Officer

The operational ramp-up coincides with government contract milestones. Ares was awarded a multi-year U.S. Department of Defense contract through the Defense Logistics Agency with an estimated initial value of approximately $169 million and a ceiling of up to $250 million over five years. The company previously targeted first deliveries of acid-grade fluorspar later in 2026 to fulfill its Defense Logistics Agency contract obligations.

Project development has proceeded without establishing mineral reserves supported by a formal technical report or completing a feasibility study, which the company acknowledges carries a higher risk of economic or technical failure than operations backed by those studies.

Read the full announcement: Ares Strategic Mining Begins Processing Mined Fluorspar Ore at its Utah Lumps Plant