NioCorp began constructing the Elk Creek mine portal in February 2026, but the wider project is not yet fully financed or in production. NioCorp is not the only developer competing to supply Lockheed Martin. Elk Creek would be unusual in targeting it as a primary product. Small-scale refining capacity survives at Ames, Iowa, and Tolleson, Arizona, with further capacity under development at Urbana, Illinois, and at Elk Creek itself. USGS records attribute 89% of US scandium oxide imports between 2021 and 2024 to Japan, where the material was refined from Philippine feedstock, against 11% arriving directly from China.