Ares Strategic Mining Inc. announced that the Company has completed the tailings storage facility (TSF) design work for its upcoming manufacturing and processing fluorspar operation in Delta, Utah, United States. Knight Piesold and Co. was retained by Ares to provide engineering services for the TSF design and provide support for the permitting process.

The new TSF will be located on Ares' 48-acre property and will be constructed in stages. Stage 1 will include construction of a single storage cell, to be used for the first three years of operation. Stage 2 will include construction of a second storage cell, to be commissioned upon Cell 1 reaching storage capacity.

Stage 3 will raise the entire perimeter embankment, which will combine Cells 1 and 2 into a single cell, to be used for The remaining years of capacity. During the construction of Cells 1 and 2, the footprint areas will be excavated, and beneficial material will be used to construct perimeter embankments. Each storage cell will be fully lined with a composite liner system, including a geomembrane placed on a low-permeability bedding soil.

A seepage collection system will be installed to collect and recirculate seepage water that drains from the stored tailings. An environmental compliance monitoring system will be included with the facility design, as well as non-contact diversion channels to manage stormwater run on. The conceptual facility layout attempts to minimize volumes of materials that would either need to be imported from offsite to construct the embankments or would be excess and require offsite disposal.

In 2018 the U.S. government classified fluorspar as a Critical Mineral, which is 100% imported in the entire country. Fluorspar's classification as a Critical Mineral in the United States translates to a faster permitting period, enabling mining operations to initiate more quickly than operations for conventional minerals.