ELK CREEK, Neb. (KOLN) - A mining program in rural Johnson County is marking a major milestone, as part of a larger effort to harvest critical underground resources, from one of the only mines of its kind on the continent.

On a rural property just south of Elk Creek, Nebraska, the mining company NioCorp is leading the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project . There, a crew of about 15 people is laying the groundwork for harvesting what they say is the “largest niobium deposit in North America.”

Scott Honan, NioCorp’s Chief Operating Officer, says niobium is valuable for making steel in vehicle frames, pipelines, structural supports in buildings, and is crucial in superconducting magnets for MRI scanners and fusion reactors. In a different form, it can also be used for lithium-ion batteries

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