Lithium Battery Fires On Airliners Average More Than One Per Week - AVweb

There was a plan to use Lockheed-Martin airships to carry ‘heavy rare earth’ ore from a mine on the Quebec-Labrador border to a railhead to the southwest.

I presume northbound payload would be supplies like fuels to operate the mine. With crew rotation both ways.

However the Quest mine company was filing for bankruptcy in 2018. I suspect volatility of metal prices and cost of access and development discouraged potential investors.

The plan is on Lockheed-Martin’s airship website.

That mine may have been the one that earlier planned to concentrate or near the mine then transport the result by ship, trucking it a significant distance to an ocean dock.

(‘Heavy’ rare earth elements are apparently more in demand or shorter in supply than ‘light’, I presume the weight label comes from position in the periodic table of elements.)