Proprietary Recovery Process Enhancement Removes Cerium and Thorium
in Single Step
Initial Separation Achieved into Heavy and Light Rare Earth Products
Company Website:
http://www.rareelementresources.com
LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- (Business Wire)
Rare Element Resources Ltd. (NYSE MKT: REE and TSX: RES), a
mineral resources company advancing development of the Bear Lodge
Critical Rare Earth Project, announced today that it has successfully
completed bench-scale testing on enhancements to its existing
patent-pending thorium extraction technology that now allows for the
selective precipitation of 100% of the thorium while also removing 85%
of the cerium, the lowest value rare earth element. This advancement
significantly reduces the concentrate mass of material subject to
further separation, thereby reducing costs, and results in an upgraded
product that is nearly 40% by weight critical rare earths (CREE)1
and 99.999% pure rare earth oxide (REO). In the second stage, a
two-contact solvent extraction (SX) process is used to separate the
contained rare earths into heavy rare earths (HREE) and light rare
earths (LREE) to simplify the separation process and further reduce
costs.
Testing was undertaken using concentrates generated from the large-scale
pilot plant work performed on the Company’s proprietary recovery process
and conducted by SGS Lakefield, Canada, and Hazen Research, Colorado,
under the direction of Dr. Henry Kasaini, Rare Element Resources’
Director of Science & Technology.
“Process advancements on our proprietary recovery process have
significantly improved our product and technology breakthroughs have
brought us successfully through the first step of elemental separation,”
stated Jaye Pickarts, Chief Operating Officer. “Our decision to capture
additional value for our shareholders by investigating elemental
separation has led to a significant improvement in our thorium removal
process that now allows us to also remove the majority of the cerium in
a single-contact SX step. By removing this lower value rare earth, we
can reduce the mass that goes through separation, significantly reducing
costs. We then use SX to achieve high separation factors for heavy and
light rare earths. This represents a significant first step and will
give us a great amount of flexibility, as we continue to investigate the
next steps of separation and how to capture more value by generating the
products that our customers’ need.”
Selective Separation by Precipitation and Solvent Extraction
Technology
On November 3, 2014, the Company filed an application for a Provisional
U.S. Patent on technology that combines selective precipitation and SX
process technology to extract cerium and thorium from the rare earth
oxide mix concentrate and thereby doubling the grade of CREE to about
40% by weight. Subsequently, the upgraded rare earth product is
separated into HREE and LREE groups.
The total rare earth (TREO) concentrate product that results from the
Company’s proprietary rare earth recovery process is initially dissolved
in nitric acid and then complexed with an alkaline solution to make the
cerium and thorium amenable to selective precipitation. Over 85% by
weight of the less valuable cerium and 100% of the thorium is removed in
this process, resulting in a product rich in didymium (37 wt.%). This
reduces the feedstock to SX and hence requires a smaller processing
facility, reducing both capital and processing costs. Depending on the
price of cerium, the cerium/thorium stream can be stockpiled or further
treated through a separate SX circuit to remove cerium for potential
sale.
In addition, the patent application describes a new SX method for
sequestering cerium and thorium, either together or separately, from a
mixed rare earth solution in a single-contact SX process. This process
is now available to remove cerium or thorium from any rare earth
product, including the cerium/thorium stream mentioned above. This
represents a significant achievement in the SX flowsheet development
program due to its ability to reduce the number of steps in subsequent
separation processing and improve management of radioactive materials.
After cerium removal, the CREE-enriched product is treated in a
single-contact SX step, in which the LREE are separated from the HREE.
It is possible to produce an almost cerium-free LREE fraction containing
93 -98% lanthanum, praseodymium and neodymium, which would allow the
Company to produce pure lanthanum and didymium products. The HREE
fraction include 97% of all elements from dysprosium to lutetium,
including 88% terbium. These separation factors will make further rare
earth separation steps cost effective.
Bench-scale tests are ongoing to use either the HREE or LREE feedstocks
to separate individual rare earth elements. The Company continues its
work with potential customers to identify the most attractive and
salable end products for the market.
Low-Temperature Counter-Current Leach Circuit
The Company filed a Provisional U.S. Patent application in October 2014
to modify its planned process recovery flowsheet to incorporate the
selective digestion of rare earths over some base metals in a
low-temperature, counter-current leach configuration. The benefits of
this process include lower reagent use, including hydrochloric and
oxalic acids, decreased energy consumption, reduced cost for
neutralization of effluent, lower capital costs and higher quality of
the REO bulk concentrate powder. A number of these benefits were
reflected in the Bear Lodge Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) results,
published on August 26, 2014. Work continues on refining the parameters
of the process.
Rare Element Resources Ltd. is a publicly traded mineral resource
company focused on exploration and development of rare-earth element
deposits, specifically those with significant distribution of critical
rare earths. The Company is advancing development of the Bear Lodge
Project, located in northeast Wyoming. Bear Lodge is a significant
mineralized district containing many of the less common, more valuable
critical rare earths that are essential for electronics, fiber optics,
laser systems for health and defense, as well as many evolving green
technologies, like hybrid cars, solar panels and wind turbines.
Permitting and feasibility work on the Project continue to advance. The
Company is a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical
Materials Institute, a combined government and private sector
organization committed to eliminating supply chain issues for rare
earths and other critical elements. Please see CMI’s website at https://cmi.ameslab.gov/
for additional details on its mission and members.
For additional information, please visit the Company’s website at www.rareelementresources.com
or contact Robbin Lee at 720-278-2462 or rlee@rareelementresources.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of securities legislation in the United States and Canada. Except for
statements of historical fact, certain information contained herein
constitutes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are
usually identified by our use of certain terminology, including "will",
"believes", "may", "expects", "should", "seeks", "anticipates", "plans",
"has potential to", or "intends" (including negative or grammatical
variations thereof) or by discussions of strategy or intentions. Such
forward-looking statements include statements regarding: patent-pending
processing test work and expected results; the estimated Project
economics and parameters as reflected in the Company’s PFS, including
capital costs, NPV, IRR, after tax returns, mine and Project life,
mining plan, payback period, anticipated production rates and costs,
rare earth prices, recovery rates and the impact of the Company’s
proprietary technology on production, matters regarding the rare earths
industry, including demand growth, rare earth prices and the impact of
rare earths on technological advancements; mineral resource and reserve
estimates; the timing and expected results of a definitive Feasibility
Study including the potential for upside as a results of the
incorporation of Project opportunities into the definitive Feasibility
Study; permitting process and progress; the expected commissioning of
the Project and Project development plans for the future. Such
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results or
achievements to be materially different from any future results or
achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include,
but are not limited to, the progress of our Bear Lodge Project;
fluctuations in demand for, and price of, rare earth products; success
of process technology under testing or development; results from
geological evaluations and programs; timing of and unexpected events at
the Bear Lodge property; delay or failure to receive government
approvals and permits; our ability to obtain financing for the Project
on acceptable terms or at all; changes in U.S. and Canadian securities
markets; and general economic conditions. There can be no assurance that
future developments affecting the Company will be those anticipated by
management. Please refer to the discussion of these and other factors in
our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013. We
expect that the above estimates as to development plans, technology and
other processes, time frames and financial needs will change as new
information is received and that actual results will vary from these
estimates, possibly by material amounts. While we may elect to update
these estimates at any time, we do not undertake to update any estimate
at any particular time or in response to any particular event. Investors
and others should not assume that any forecasts in this news release
represent management's estimate as of any date other than the date of
this news release.
1 Identified by the U.S. Department of Energy (Critical
Materials Strategy Report, 2011) as those rare earths most essential to
the “clean energy” economy and at highest risk of supply disruption.
Includes neodymium, dysprosium, europium, terbium and yttrium. Rare
Element includes praseodymium because of its use with neodymium in
didymium, a raw material in high-strength permanent magnets.
Contacts:
Rare Element Resources Ltd.
Robbin Lee, 720-278-2462
rlee@rareelementresources.com
Source: Rare Element Resources Ltd.
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