Resource World Magazine

22 www.resourceworld.com O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 9 RARE EARTHS ply chain outside of China and the access to capital to finish the job to bring that new supply to market was no longer avail- able. I think they assumed that cash would be available, but it just didn't happen. And then, of course, to have Molycorp in California go bankrupt discourages further investment in new Rare Earth develop- ments in North America. RW: Are there any US Rare Earth proj- ects that you would consider advanced and significant? DB: The Mountain Pass Mine is still probably the most advanced project in the United States that was the former Molycorp. After it went bankrupt, new owners tried to develop more supply from it. Ironically, that interest seemed to be controlled by the Chinese. RW: Would the Pentagon also consider Canadian Rare Earth projects as domestic? DB: Yes, they have announced that after Prime Minister Trudeau met with President Trump this summer that there had been agreement on collaborating on development of these critical mineral sup- ply chains in North America. RW: Does that mean that the Pentagon might be interested in your project? DB: Yes, and we made a submission under the Pentagon program, in July. RW: If China restricted or banned the sale of Rare Earths to the US, considering the fact that it can take up to 10 years to explore, develop and start a Rare Earths mine, plus the refining, what could the US do in the short-term, or even the long-term? DB: Getting started sooner rather than later is certainly critical. One thing that has happened was work done on this front in Canada, too. That was research into new extraction technologies that might create efficiencies on recovering Rare Earths from traditional ores and other sources. I think there is still good potential for finding ways to recover Rare Earth Elements from lower grade sources, and more efficient ways to recover them, refine them and separate them into the individ- ual Rare Earth elements. RW: With China having a stranglehold on Rare Earths production and refinement, how much influence does politics play in this sector? DB: Obviously, a lot with China playing the Rare Earths card as a strategic weapon in their trade negotiations with the United States, as they did 10 years ago in the confrontation they had with Japan over sovereignty of the South China Sea. Clearly, they've indicated they are thinking in terms of using that control for political purposes and have demonstrated it yet again; furthermore, it's not just Rare Earths, it's other critical minerals out there that they have control over as well. So, the less the United States are vulnerable for supply disruptions with a number of stra- tegic commodities, the better. RW: A few years ago, many junior explorers jumped onto the Rare Earths bandwagon, today there are only a few. Are these abandoned projects just wait- ing for further exploration and possibly development? DB: Yes, there are some that can prob- ably be reactivated to pick-up where they left off to try to resume down the original path, and certainly our Nechalacho Project is one of those. That's why we've hung onto it, anticipating that there'd be another day for Rare Earths and sure enough, it has arrived, and we also have the opportunity to look at other possibilities on that same project. RW: Analyst John Kaiser thinks there will be a Rare Earths Mania Two for Rare Earths stocks. Could you comment on that? DB: There could be. There continues to be a tremendous amount of media coverage of the issue and that's exactly what we saw in 2010 that created that flurry of specula- tive interest in 2010/2011. We're starting to see that again. There is no shortage of commentary out there. The key is the extraction process and, I think that is something that is not well understood by the public and in the investment community. They think of Rare Earths as just another mined commodity. They're not. They are very challenging to recover. Finding the resources is the easy part. And that's true of a lot of these non-tradi- tional commodities – same with lithium. It's easy to find the resource but meet- ing the challenges and costs of extracting and processing them into a form that can ultimately be used in downstream applica- tions is what is needed. RARE EARTHS COMPANY PROFILES Appia Energy Corp. [API-CSE; APAAF- OTCQB] is currently focusing on delineating high-grade critical rare earth elements (REE) and uranium on the Alces Lake property in northern Saskatchewan. The 100%-owned, 14,334 hectare prop- erty is north of Lake Athabasca and the Athabasca Basin approximately 34 km east of Uranium City and 135 km west of Stony Rapids. The company recently completed 2,042.1 metres of drilling, in 44 diamond drill holes, in six target areas that were based on geologically and geophysically defined targets. Earlier drilling at Alces Lake returned encouraging results: Diamond drill hole LIGHT RARE EARTHS Lanthanum ........................................La Cerium ..............................................Ce Praseodymium .................................. Pr Neodymium ...................................... Nd Promethium ...................................... Pr Scandium ..........................................Sc MEDIUM RARE EARTHS Samarium ....................................... Sm Europium ...........................................Eu Gadolinium ....................................... Gd HEAVY RARE EARTHS Dysprosium .......................................Dy Lutetium ............................................Lu Holmium........................................... Ho Erbium .............................................. Er Terbium .............................................Tb Thulium ............................................Tm Ytterbium ..........................................Yb Yttrium ................................................Y

• Cover