Welcome to Nuclear Update.

This is not the weekly update, that one will land in your inbox on Monday.

Today we’re heading deep into America’s heartland, where the key to the next energy revolution doesn’t glow, doesn’t split, and doesn’t make headlines… but makes everything else in the nuclear world possible.

For much of the 20th century, the Illinois–Kentucky Fluorspar District was humming. This region supplied nearly all of America’s fluorspar for decades, feeding the Manhattan Project, the early nuclear fleet, and the chemical industries that grew around them.

Then the lights went out: cheap imports and policy neglect buried the district for a generation.

But the story isn’t over. Washington is suddenly hellbent on digging it up again.

This deep dive is the last part of the Fluorspar series.
If you missed the first two, catch up here:
Part 1: Fluorspar: The Key Mineral for Enrichment
Part 2: The Hidden Bottleneck in Nuclear Fuel

⚛️The Rise, Fall, and Rediscovery

For most of the 20th century, the Illinois–Kentucky Fluorspar District (IKFD) was the global epicenter of fluorspar mining. These rolling hills and fault zones once supplied over 90% of the nation’s fluorspar, the mineral that powers everything from uranium conversion to aluminum smelting, refrigerants, and semiconductors.

Fluorspar (CaF₂) doesn’t get much media love, but it’s the backbone of modern chemistry.

It’s the world’s main source of fluorine, the element that turns uranium into gas for enrichment, makes lithium batteries stable, and keeps semiconductor fabrication plants running clean.

You can’t make hydrofluoric acid (HF) without it.

You can’t make UF₆ (enriched uranium gas) without HF.

And you definitely can’t fuel reactors without UF₆.

That single chain of reactions fluorspar → HF → UF₆ — is the thread running through the entire nuclear fuel cycle.

Then came globalization. Drive through southern Illinois or western Kentucky today, and you might not realize you’re crossing what was once the beating heart of America’s fluorine industry.

By the 1990s, cheaper imports from China and Mexico had wiped out domestic mining and processing. The U.S. lost not just its mines, but almost its entire midstream processing base, the infrastructure to turn fluorspar into HF.

For decades, those mines sat idle, shafts filled, rail spurs rusted, entire towns turned to footnotes in industrial history.

But like the One Ring, the Illinois–Kentucky fluorspar belt was only biding its time, waiting to be rediscovered when the world needed its power again.

The funny thing about mines is: stop mining, and the mineral remains in the ground. The Illinois–Kentucky belt still holds rich fluorspar deposits. And as the world scrambles to rebuild secure supply chains, those same hills are starting to look strategic again.

🏗️ The Global Mineral Chess Game

Fast forward three decades, and the same fault lines that once built the fluorine economy are back on Washington’s radar.

As geopolitical tensions rise, supply chains stagger, and tariff wars dominate headlines, resource security has become the new arms race.

At the recent G7 Summit, leaders launched the first projects under the Critical Minerals Alliance, a coordinated effort to break dependence on China for materials like lithium, rare earths… and yes, fluorspar.

Canada, meanwhile, just rolled out the first investments under its C$1.5 billion Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund and announced plans for a new C$2 billion Sovereign Critical Minerals Fund, both designed to accelerate North American mining, processing, and refining capacity.

In Washington, the Department of Energy previously announced fast-tracking projects that can restore domestic refining and chemical conversion capacity, the very midstream America dismantled in the 1990s. These programs offer streamlined permitting, funding access, grants, and national-security classification, which cut years off traditional development timelines.

But the West isn’t the only one moving. Just this past week, Vladimir Putin ordered a national roadmap for rare earth extraction and new transport corridors linking Russia with China and North Korea. Moscow wants a seat at the resource table too, tightening its strategic alignment with Beijing as sanctions push it further east.

From Global Tensions to Local Advantage

Now the Illinois–Kentucky fluorspar belt sits squarely at the intersection of energy policy and national security, a missing puzzle piece in the trillion-dollar race to rebuild resilient supply chains.

And with new nuclear plants, semiconductor fabrication plants, and EV battery factories rising across the continent, all hungry for hydrofluoric acid, timing couldn’t be better. Fluorspar has shifted from forgotten rock to frontline material in the fight for energy independence.

As supply chains tighten worldwide, momentum is shifting toward nearshoring critical materials at any cost. Governments are doing more than just funding mines; they’re rewriting permitting laws, subsidizing midstream plants, and courting private developers to move fast.

The race isn’t just about who can dig first, but who can process, refine, and deliver strategic materials before rivals lock in supply.

That sense of urgency is what makes the Illinois–Kentucky revival so compelling, it’s one of the few districts with the geology, infrastructure, and institutional memory to ramp up production without starting from zero.

Every tonne of domestic fluorspar produced here is a tonne less of dependency on global competitors.

CleanTech CTV’s Comeback Blueprint

As rivals tighten their grip on critical minerals, America’s answer is emerging from the heartland.

In 2024, CleanTech CTV (TSXV: CTV.v; OTCQB: CTVFF) began consolidating claims across the Illinois–Kentucky Fluorspar District, positioning itself as the largest active developer in the region.

Its landholdings have since doubled to nearly 16,000 acres after the Quarant Project acquisition, giving the company control over some of the most historically productive ground in the U.S. fluorspar belt.

This district is one of the most geologically unique fluorspar zones in the world. The deposits sit along a 30-mile structural fault system that has produced some of the highest-purity acid-grade fluorspar ever mined. Decades of historic data from the U.S. Bureau of Mines, coupled with old drilling logs, have mapped out extensive reserves still in the ground.

What makes it special is proximity: it lies within easy reach of major highways, rail links, and industrial hubs, meaning any future processing plant could plug directly into the national supply chain.

It sits within a corridor that is becoming a U.S. energy-materials triangle:

To the north: Uranium conversion at Honeywell Metropolis.

To the west: EV battery and semiconductor expansion across Missouri and Tennessee.

To the east: Chemical-grade production and refining centers linked to the Gulf Coast.

It’s a convergence zone for everything the U.S. needs to rebuild its industrial self-sufficiency, a literal crossroads of raw materials and manufacturing.

Local support is growing, too. Both Illinois and Kentucky economic development agencies have identified the district as a potential linchpin in America’s critical-minerals revival, and nearby towns are already seeing a return of investment interest that hasn’t existed in decades.

From Strategy to Execution

Unlike many critical-mineral projects still stuck in exploration limbo, this one comes with a century of geological data, historic drill logs, and proven grades. The region produced so consistently for so long that much of the underlying resource potential was never fully depleted, just abandoned when prices collapsed.

CleanTech CTV is approaching it like a 21st-century redevelopment project rather than a traditional mine. Digital mapping, AI-assisted geological modeling, and modern environmental design, all layered over historic mining data that stretches back 100 years.

The goal isn’t to replicate the past but to reinvent it, blending heritage with innovation.

By integrating low-impact extraction, closed-loop processing, and potential HF co-location, the company is setting the stage for something that could anchor an entire domestic fluorine value chain.

That’s what makes this project different: it’s not about speculation, it’s about reconstruction.

Their plan is to not only mine acid-grade fluorspar (AGF) domestically but to build a processing plant to process AGF on-site into hydrofluoric acid, something the U.S. hasn’t done at scale in decades.

A production plan is expected to be outlined by year-end, and management has already indicated that they will be applying for fast-track permitting through the new DOE DOD initiatives.

⚛️ Wrapping Up

The Illinois–Kentucky district stands for more than fluorspar. It’s a story of industrial revival, a reminder that you can’t build reactors, EVs, or chips on someone else’s chemistry.

To power the future, you first have to rebuild its foundations.

And CleanTech CTV is doing just that: helping the U.S. reclaim the full value chain, from mine to molecule.

– Fredrik

For more information on CleanTech’s work to close the HF gap, visit their website www.cleantechctv.com or contact John Lee at [email protected]

Disclosure: This Deep Dive was created in collaboration with CleanTech CTV, which sponsored this post. All analysis and opinions are those of Nuclear Update.

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. Nuclear Update is for informational and educational purposes only, it’s here to help you understand the world of uranium, energy, and the markets that orbit them, not to tell you what to buy or sell. Nothing in this article should be taken as a recommendation or solicitation to make any financial decision. Always do your own research, double-check sources, and talk to a licensed professional before making investments. Markets move fast, opinions change, and yes, sometimes even Fredrik gets things wrong.