Mr. Pierre Lortie reports

QUEST ANNOUNCES FLOTATION OPTIMIZATION RESULTS

Quest Rare Minerals Ltd. recently concluded a development program with SGS Minerals Services, one of the world's leading metallurgical research laboratories, which produced a comprehensive enhancement to the flotation phase that substantially reduces the mass pull and optimizes rare earth metals recoveries.

Quest's flotation optimization project consisted of a four-month bench-scale testing process aimed at enhancing the efficiency of the flow sheet presented in the company's June, 2014, preliminary economic assessment (PEA).

Pierre Lortie, Quest's executive chairman, commented: "We are very pleased with the results of this important optimization work. They not only confirm the approach adopted by Quest for ore concentration, but additionally, identify methods and approaches to considerably reduce the overall anticipated capital expenditures and operating costs of the project."

Dirk Naumann, executive vice-president, development, stated that: "These strong results constitute important progress in confirming our process parameters. We now look forward to proceed to a mini-scale pilot plant and rigorous full-scale pilot testing, both of which will further confirm and fine-tune the process flow sheet for optimal performance, and cost of the separation processes."

Key optimization results

Compared with the results presented in the 2014 PEA, the company obtained:

1. A 57-per-cent reduction in average flotation concentrate production -- from the 578,000 dry metric tonnes reported in the June, 2014, PEA to 247,000 dry metric tonnes. The extensive testing program demonstrated a mass pull of around 20 per cent, with rare earth oxide recoveries of approximately 80 per cent;
2. A 38-per-cent savings in the cost of transporting flotation concentrate from the mine site to the Becancour plants. The transport costs in the June, 2014, PEA were $54.2-million per year, or $5.20 per kilogram of rare earth oxide output; they are reduced to $33-million per year or $3.05 per kilogram, a cost saving of $2.15 per kilogram;
3. The large reduction in the volume of flotation concentrate (a 57-per-cent or 331-metric-tonne-per-year reduction) feeding into the processing plants at Becancour will also result in significant reductions in both processing plant capital and operating costs (yet to be quantified).

Project development and next steps

Quest will continue its efforts to optimize the ore concentration and separation process flow sheets. Mini-plant piloting is about to begin, followed by large-scale piloting. The company is targeting a 20-per-cent to 30-per-cent reduction in its June, 2014, PEA Strange Lake project cost estimates.

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