EXIM Reiterates Target to Finance Approximately 65% of Elk Creek Project Upfront CAPEX
Key Highlights
- ➤EXIM targets debt financing equal to approximately 65% of Elk Creek’s upfront CAPEX
- ➤Elk Creek upfront CAPEX estimated at approximately $1.85 billion
- ➤EXIM continues due diligence before potential Transaction Review Committee consideration
- ➤NioCorp (NB) received renewed federal support for its U.S. critical minerals project
Expert Statements
John Jovanovic, Chairman and President of EXIM
“At this point, EXIM retains our target outlined in the Preliminary Project Letter of providing debt financing equivalent to approximately 65% of the Project's upfront CAPEX requirements.”
John Jovanovic, Chairman and President of EXIM
“The Elk Creek Minerals Project is exactly the type of opportunity EXIM was always designed to support”
John Jovanovic, Chairman and President of EXIM
“By advancing U.S. control over the critical minerals essential to aircraft, automobiles, advanced manufacturing, and our broad industrial base, this project means more good jobs in Nebraska, more opportunities for American workers and a stronger, more secure industrial future for the United States.”
John Jovanovic, Chairman and President of EXIM
“We've become over-reliant on markets that aren't free, they aren't fair, and they aren't functioning”
John Jovanovic, Chairman and President of EXIM
“All we want to do today is level the playing field and allow American capital, American innovation, American engineers, and fantastic entrepreneurs and great companies led by the likes of Mark Smith to really succeed. All that changes with projects like NioCorp. All that changes with what we're doing today.”
Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy
“This is not just the economics of the United States. This is our national security that rests on what's underground right here. We can't just talk about them and write a few papers and then hand it off to the next administration”
Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy
“We actually have to act. We have to do something to change the situation we're in.”
Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy
“His leaning in to provide the capital in a marketplace where China has distorted that marketplace”
Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy
“[China] has purposefully and strategically made it uneconomic to do what we're doing here today.”
Jim Pillen, Governor of Nebraska
“This is a step, a big step in the right direction”
Jim Pillen, Governor of Nebraska
“We have lots of work ahead to do, but I'm incredibly proud to be a small part of it.”
Deb Fischer, U.S. Senator from Nebraska
“This project also represents an extraordinary economic opportunity for rural Nebraska with the potential to support thousands of American jobs and really to generate some long-term economic growth across this region”
Deb Fischer, U.S. Senator from Nebraska
“Today's letter signing marks another important step for NioCorp as they work to continue to get that federal financing review process going”
Pete Ricketts, U.S. Senator from Nebraska
“Establishing secure supply lines on things such as niobium and scandium, titanium, magnetic rare earths, and processing them here is vital”
Pete Ricketts, U.S. Senator from Nebraska
“This is a vital project. I'm so proud that Nebraska is part of it. This is something that's important for our country, for our state, and for the community here in Elk Creek and Johnson County.”
Adrian Smith, U.S. Representative from Nebraska
“To see things in action here already, it's so exciting”
Adrian Smith, U.S. Representative from Nebraska
“We want to see this through all the way to a very successful and continued operation.”
Mark A. Smith, Executive Chairman and CEO of NioCorp Developments Ltd.
“For the nation, it means a reliable domestic source of material our economy and our military simply cannot do without”
Mark A. Smith, Executive Chairman and CEO of NioCorp Developments Ltd.
“And it's going to be produced to American standards by American workers on American soil.”
Mark A. Smith, Executive Chairman and CEO of NioCorp Developments Ltd.
“None of this happens alone”
Mark A. Smith, Executive Chairman and CEO of NioCorp Developments Ltd.
“It takes partners at every level of government who understand that critical mineral security is national security.”
CENTENNIAL, CO / ACCESS Newswire / October 15, 2026 / NioCorp Developments Ltd. ("NioCorp," "our," or the "Company") (NASDAQ:NB), a leading U.S. critical minerals developer, is pleased to announce that the Export-Import Bank of the United States ("EXIM") reiterated its support on Wednesday to consider providing financing for the cost of constructing the Company's Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project (the "Elk Creek Project") in southeast Nebraska, subject to satisfactory completion of EXIM's current due diligence review of NioCorp's application for debt financing.
In a Letter of Support (the "Letter") signed by EXIM Chairman and President John Jovanovic and NioCorp Executive Chairman and CEO Mark A. Smith during a ceremony at the Elk Creek Project, EXIM stated: "At this point, EXIM retains our target outlined in the Preliminary Project Letter of providing debt financing equivalent to approximately 65% of the Project's upfront CAPEX requirements."
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