Welcome to Nuclear Update.

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

But since it’s Halloween weekend, we’re talking about something truly spooky: a mineral so overlooked that the entire nuclear fuel cycle could stall without it.

Today’s deep dive (yes, memes included) is all about how one obscure mineral keeps the global nuclear fuel cycle alive: fluorspar.

And here’s the kicker: mining it is only the beginning. Turning it into something useful like hydrofluoric acid (the chemical backbone of uranium conversion, semiconductors, and EV batteries) is where the real bottleneck begins.

We’ve seen this story before, with uranium.

For decades, the U.S. led the world in uranium mining, conversion, and enrichment. Then prices fell, foreign supply got cheaper, and domestic infrastructure withered away. By the early 2000s, America was still rich in uranium ore, but almost entirely dependent on foreign countries to process and enrich it. The result? A fuel cycle built on imported chemistry.

The HF gap is following the same script. We’re rich in resources but poor in processing, great at finding the rocks, not so great at turning them into the materials that actually power reactors, batteries, or chips. It’s a reminder that energy security isn’t just about what’s underground, it’s about the industrial steps that come after, the parts of the supply chain we stopped paying attention to until they disappeared.

⚛️From Fluorspar to HF: The Missing Middle

Let’s rewind the tape briefly.

Fluorspar is a naturally occurring mineral made of calcium and fluorine (CaF₂). Its real superpower today is being the world’s main source of fluorine.

Fluorine is the key to turning uranium into a gas (UF₆) for enrichment.

No fluorspar, no UF₆. No UF₆, no enriched fuel. Simple as that. For the prequel on how it all starts, check out part one: Fluorspar: The Key Mineral for Enrichment.

That whole conversion chain from fluorspar to fluorine to UF₆ runs through one critical step: hydrofluoric acid (HF).

HF is made by reacting fluorspar with sulfuric acid. It’s the first building block in what’s called the fluorine value chain, a chain that leads to UF₆, LiPF₆, SF₆, and dozens of compounds that modern industry depends on every single day.

But here’s the issue: while fluorspar can still be mined in the U.S., the capacity to refine it into HF at scale has nearly vanished. The chemical know-how exists, but the infrastructure doesn’t.

And that gap is now limiting everything from reactor fuel production to semiconductor fabrication.

🇺🇸 America’s Midstream Blind Spot

The U.S. once produced both fluorspar and HF domestically. Kentucky and Illinois thrived on it throughout much of the 20th century, powering chemical plants and nuclear programs alike. But by the 1990s, a flood of low-cost imports and tightening environmental regulations had shut nearly all domestic operations down.

What little survived was gradually absorbed into multinational supply-chains that later shifted production to China and Mexico, where refining remains cheaper and less restricted.

The result? America can still dig the stuff up, but it can’t finish the job at home.

It’s the same pattern across the entire clean energy supply chain:

• Lithium mined in the U.S. → refined in China

• Rare earths mined in California → separated in Asia

• Uranium mined in Wyoming → converted overseas or enriched abroad

Hydrofluoric acid is another link in that broken chain. Over 80% of America’s HF supply is imported, mostly from Mexico and China, leaving the country dependent on foreign chemistry to power its own nuclear, battery, and semiconductor sectors.

📉 The Growing Squeeze

HF demand in the U.S. sits around 600,000–700,000 tonnes per year, while domestic production covers less than 20% of that.

The rest comes from imports. And those imports depend on two things:

• A steady supply of foreign fluorspar and HF, and

• The goodwill of exporters who control conversion capacity.

China alone accounts for more than 60% of global HF production, and its government has already tightened export rules on fluorine compounds multiple times in recent years.

It’s the same playbook we saw with rare earths in 2010, only this time, it’s not about magnets, it’s about the chemistry that underpins the entire clean-tech economy.

The supply–demand gap isn’t just growing; it’s compounding. New nuclear builds, EV battery plants, and semiconductor fabs are all scaling at once, and every one of them needs a steady stream of HF.

Even if new U.S. fluorspar mines come online, mining alone won’t fix the problem. The real choke point is midstream, in the refining and chemical conversion infrastructure that turns CaF₂ into HF and downstream products at scale.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the country once had over 220,000 tonnes per year of HF capacity. Today, most of that depends on imported acid-grade fluorspar, which makes the entire chain fragile.

HF plants are capital-intensive, corrosive, and highly regulated. The acid is so reactive it must be stored in Teflon-lined systems, and any new facility faces years of permitting and environmental review. The U.S. hasn’t built a new one in decades.

That leaves America reliant on foreign refiners for one of the most essential chemicals in nuclear fuel, EV batteries, and semiconductors.

🧩 The Search for a Domestic Fix

The good news is that Washington and industry aren’t asleep at the wheel anymore. After years of relying on imported feedstock, policymakers are finally treating fluorine chemistry like the strategic asset it is.

The Department of Energy and the U.S. Geological Survey have both classified fluorspar as critical to national security. Federal programs are now exploring how to rebuild the domestic refining and conversion capacity that vanished in the 1990s, not just to protect supply chains, but to preserve industrial independence.

Across the Midwest and Southwest, developers are reassessing historic mining districts, while state agencies are mapping old fluorspar belts and testing old tailings for modern viability. Universities are dusting off long-forgotten research into safer hydrofluoric-acid production methods. Even private investors are starting to circle, seeing an opportunity in the gap between geology and chemistry.

It’s early days, but momentum is building. Everyone now understands what used to be ignored: mining is only half the battle, the real prize lies in the midstream, where raw minerals become usable materials that feed entire economies.

🏗️ CleanTech CTV’s Play: Rebuilding the Fluorine Chain

Enter CleanTech CTV, a Canadian-listed critical minerals company (TSXV: CTV.v; OTCQB: CTVFF) with a refreshingly simple thesis:

If you want secure nuclear and battery supply chains, start where the chemistry starts.

CleanTech CTV is working to revive U.S. fluorspar production through a large land package in the historic Illinois–Kentucky Fluorspar District, once America’s main source of the mineral. This region supplied domestic industry for much of the 20th century before global competition shuttered it in the 1990s.

Now, CleanTech CTV is bringing it back to life.

CleanTech CTV controls nearly 16,000 acres in the historic Illinois–Kentucky Fluorspar District after doubling its mineral rights through the recent Quarant Project acquisition. This expansion builds on extensive historic drilling and infrastructure, strengthening its position as one of the largest consolidated fluorspar holdings in the U.S. The company’s CEO has also said they’re evaluating a domestic production plan by year-end, signaling that mining could soon evolve into full-scale processing.

But CleanTech’s strategy goes beyond mining. The company has outlined plans to build a domestic acid-grade fluorspar processing plant, to restore midstream refining capacity within the United States.

That facility would represent one of the first serious attempts toward rebuilding the fluorine conversion chain, the missing link between raw fluorspar and the hydrofluoric acid used in nuclear, semiconductor, and EV battery industries.

They’re also aligning their projects with U.S. federal critical-minerals initiatives, including Department of Energy and Department of Defense programs aimed at re-establishing domestic refining and conversion for strategic materials like fluorspar and vanadium. These programs offer pathways to fast-track development for qualifying strategic projects, giving CleanTech CTV a unique advantage as federal policy shifts toward onshoring the critical midstream.

The momentum is already visible across the sector. Just this week, Cameco’s shares jumped after news of an $80 billion U.S. nuclear pact, highlighting how aggressively Washington is now moving to rebuild its nuclear and fuel-cycle infrastructure.

By positioning themselves early in this policy shift, CleanTech CTV is carving out a role as a future supplier and processor, not just an explorer.

⚡ Wrapping Up

America is rediscovering its appetite for mining, but the real challenge isn’t what comes out of the ground, it’s what happens next.

Fluorspar might be the first domino, but with roughly 80% of hydrofluoric acid still imported, the chain remains fragile.

Every centrifuge, every chip fab, every EV battery depends on chemistry the U.S. can no longer fully make at home.

That’s why the midstream matters. If America wants real energy security, it has to rebuild not just the mines, but the molecules in between.

– Fredrik

For more information on CleanTech’s work to close the HF gap, visit their website 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.