Utah is about to process fluorspar at home again. Ares Strategic Mining (CSE: ARS) announced October 8 it will host an official ribbon-cutting at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, October 9, at its processing facility in Delta, formally opening the new Lumps Plant and marking the return of a domestic mine-to-plant fluorspar operation in the United States.
- The Delta Lumps Plant is now receiving ore from Ares' fully permitted Lost Sheep Mine and introducing live material into the circuit, with the team optimizing around Lost Sheep ore characteristics as production ramps.
- Lost Sheep is 100%-owned — 5,982 acres across 353 claims in the Spor Mountain area of Juab County, about 214 km southwest of Salt Lake City — with BLM-approved mining plans. The plant converts run-of-mine fluorspar into metallurgical-grade fluorspar, or metspar.
- Confirmed ceremony attendees include U.S. Representative Mike Kennedy, Utah State Senator David P. Hinkins, Utah Office of Energy Development Director Emy Lesofski, and Acting Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining Director Dana Dean, with federal agency coordination ongoing.
- Utah support was material: 2025 state legislation broadened throughput-infrastructure eligibility to critical-mineral processing, and Ares subsequently received an $11 million state-supported loan through the Utah Community Impact Board for its Utah operations.
- Ares says it has a memorandum of understanding with global commodities trader Cremer Erzkontor Inc. relating to distribution of its metspar product across North America.
Why metspar, and why Delta
Metspar is used principally in steel and aluminum production, where fluorspar acts as a fluxing material. The strategic point here is not a discovery hole — it's infrastructure. Ares is building the chain itself: mining at Lost Sheep, trucking ore to Delta, processing through company-built infrastructure, and preparing finished product for commercial markets.
That is a different kind of milestone than an assay headline. Permitting, mine development, engineering, construction and financing only matter once ore is actually moving through a plant. Ares says that threshold has now been crossed, with live material in the circuit ahead of the formal opening.
What comes next
The Lumps Plant is the first major processing component of a broader Utah strategy. Ares is also advancing construction of a complementary acidspar flotation plant, intended to produce higher-purity acid-grade fluorspar for chemical, technology, energy and strategic-material applications.
For Utah, that sequence fits a familiar pattern in the western tour states: a permitted mine, state-backed infrastructure financing, and a processing step that keeps value in-state rather than shipping raw ore out. Whether the ramp stays smooth will be told by operating updates after the ceremony, not by the ribbon itself — but as of this week, a U.S. fluorspar mine and plant are physically connected and running.