Ms. Robbin Lee reports
RARE ELEMENT RESOURCES JOINS THE CRITICAL MATERIALS INSTITUTE A DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY INITIATIVE TO HELP ENSURE A SECURE RARE EARTH SUPPLY FOR EVOLVING CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES
Rare Element Resources Ltd. has joined the Critical
Materials Institute (CMI) as an affiliate member. CMI is a major
initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and is recognized as
the nation's premier research, development and deployment institute for
critical elements, their alloys and compounds. The CMI team is led by
the Ames Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and consists of scientists and
engineers from four national laboratories, seven universities and six
other industry partners. CMI is working to address the issue of
criticality with certain rare earths and other elements that it believes
might hinder the development and commercialization of clean energy
technologies within the United States. CMI has long-term goals of
eliminating supply chain fragilities of certain rare earths and other
materials, which included diversifying the sources of critical materials.
"CMI has assembled an excellent team with the best and the brightest
talents and research platforms in the rare earth field," said Randall J.
Scott, president and chief executive officer. "Working together, we
believe the public and private sector can successfully re-establish a
complete, domestic rare earth supply chain to eliminate many of the
issues relating to our current dependence on foreign sources for the
vast majority of U.S. rare earth supplies. Rare Element Resources is
pleased to have been invited to join CMI and to have the opportunity to
contribute to these efforts and to help build a better tomorrow by
ensuring the continued success of clean energy technologies."
The rare earth elements designated "critical" by the DOE include
neodymium, europium, terbium, dysprosium and yttrium. Rare Element
Resources' Bear Lodge project is expected to generate approximately 70 per cent
of its revenues from these five elements, based on projections in its
prefeasibility study completed in August, 2014. The company has
developed proprietary processing technology that has produced a 97-plus-per-cent,
near-thorium-free total rare earth concentrate in multiple pilot plant
tests. Bear Lodge is the most advanced rare earth development project in
the United States. The U.S. Forest Service is currently developing an
environment impact statement on the project, with the draft expected in
the first quarter of 2015.
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