Jaye Pickarts

Career chronology

• 2011–2016; end month not established: Rare Element Resources — Chief Operating Officer. Rare Element appoints Jaye Pickarts COO (2011 appointment); Rare Element 2024 annual report (Item 10, earlier COO tenure)

• 2016–2024; exact months not established: Rare Element Resources — Independent consultant. Rare Element 2024 annual report (Item 10, Jaye Pickarts biography)

• October 2024–31 December 2025: Rare Element Resources — Chief Operating Officer. Rare Element demonstration plant update (COO in 2025); Rare Element management change (effective retirement); Rare Element 2024 annual report (executive compensation, 2024 appointment)

• Engaged by 9 April 2026; contractual start not established: American Rare Earths — Pilot Plant Lead, independent consultant. Wyoming-led pilot plant program and Pickarts engagement (engagement)

Business failures and setbacks

Bear Lodge permitting pause and later demonstration work

2016 and 2025 · documented · medium materiality

Rare Element reported that its board suspended Bear Lodge permitting in January 2016 amid difficult market conditions. It later reported equipment shakedown at its Wyoming demonstration plant in January 2025 during a subsequent Pickarts COO term.

Attribution: Role overlaps event; causation unproven. The suspension was a board decision during his earlier COO tenure; market conditions and later execution involved multiple parties, and personal causation is not established.

Relevance: Useful context for rare-earth project execution and sensitivity to financing.

Rare Element 2015 annual report (Item 2, properties and permitting suspension); Rare Element appoints Jaye Pickarts COO (COO appointment); Rare Element demonstration plant update (2025 plant update); Rare Element management change (later COO departure)

Suitability for the current role

Rare-earth process and project background

2011–2026 · analyst inference · high materiality

ARR engaged Pickarts, a metallurgical engineer and independent consultant, to lead the Halleck Creek pilot plant. Rare Element previously named him COO in 2011 and its 2025 SEC filing records his retirement as COO effective 31 December 2025.

Attribution: Responsibility not applicable. The prior appointments and consultant role are issuer-reported; current ARR employment is not asserted.

Relevance: Rare-earth pilot and permitting expertise is relevant to Halleck Creek.

Wyoming-led pilot plant program and Pickarts engagement (pilot program and engagement); Rare Element appoints Jaye Pickarts COO (COO appointment and previous engineering experience); Rare Element management change (retirement)

Evidence gaps

• Exact start and end months for the 2016–2024 independent-consulting period are not established.

• Independent licensing, career, regulatory and litigation records are not comprehensively verified.