Canadian silica, zircon, titanium, scandium, vanadium and rare earths developer Meta Critical Minerals has appointed John Melkon to its strategic advisory board effective immediately.

Melkon is a senior adviser to the US Military Academy after working as a director and assistant professor at the academy from 2012 to 2026. He recently started building and leading the critical minerals consortium within the academy.

His earlier work experience includes senior operations adviser for US Army Africa, in Italy, and strategic operations officer for the Department of Defence. Melkon also served 13 years as an Army Special Forces officer.

"His 30 years of experience negotiating critical supply chains for US national security will help us deepen our engagement with US government, military and industry stakeholders seeking secure domestic sources of zircon, titanium, rare earth elements (REEs), scandium and vanadium, where domestic sourcing is a stated national security priority," says Meta Critical Minerals CEO Rana Vig.

Melkon's appointment comes as Meta Critical Minerals is advancing the Arcadia and Lake Owen projects in Wyoming. Vig says his expertise will be instrumental in helping the company to advance its two complementary Wyoming assets toward resource definition and feasibility.

"Both projects have the potential to contribute to US domestic sources of critical minerals with important applications across aerospace and defence, nuclear energy and advanced manufacturing," he adds.

Meta Critical Minerals recently received approval to start with a 3 200 m drill programme at the Dugout Creek deposit of Arcadia. Dugout Creek is one of two near-surface, open-pittable heavy mineral sand deposits at Arcadia.

The deposit contains zircon, titanium-bearing ilmenite and REE-bearing monazite.

Notably, prior to receiving the drill permit, Meta Critical Minerals visited a research day at the US Military Academy where preliminary discussions were held with faculty and researchers regarding potential collaboration on the Wyoming projects and potential alignment with US military and government priorities for critical minerals.