The campaign involved drilling 16 boreholes and 20 test pits across the one square mile Elk Creek Project site, analysing soil samples, and generating data for engineering design firms that are continuing to finalise plans for the potential construction of the facility. The drilling explored the glacial till geological layer, which is comprised of the first 30m or so of soil, clay, and sand that covers much of southeast Nebraska. This layer of sediment was deposited by repeated glaciation that occurred in the Pleistocene epoch that ended approximately 11,000 years ago.

"This important drilling is part of a site-wide investigation that helps us to understand how the soils vary across the site so that we can carefully plan our facility layout and construction plans," Scott Honan, NioCorp's COO, who supervised the fieldwork, said.

"What is exciting to me about this drilling campaign is that this is the kind of work that you do before you start some of the important site preparation work in terms of clearing the land, grading the land, getting it ready to bring in temporary facilities and utilities, construction trailers and other supporting infrastructure, and launching the early works needed to support the full construction package.

"We expect that completing this work now will allow us to move that much more quickly to construction once we have sufficient financing necessary to move to that stage," he added.

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