Resource World Magazine

20 www.resourceworld.com J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 1 8 owned, and operated for the benefit of the many rare earth dependent technology companies around the world." In another article, Kennedy explained that the US lost its leadership in the REE sector when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and International Atomic Energy Agency regulations classifying very low levels of thorium, and/or ura - nium as source materials "took hold in the 1980s, eliminating them from the value chain." Today, there is not a fully inte - grated REE value chain outside China. The US is no longer a REE producer now that Molycorp's Mountain Pass Mine in California went bankrupt in 2015. The new owner of Mountain Pass is MP Mine Operations LLC – a Chinese-led consor- tium including rare earths miner Shenghe Resources. In a recent article, Kennedy alleges that the Molycorp IPO was flawed in that some of it was based on erroneous data. He said that he brought this to the attention of the US Department of Defense, stating that the mine was not economically viable, to no avail. In the same article, Kennedy criticizes media reports on the recent reports of a $500 billion rare earths discovery on a triangu - lar Japanese island in the Pacific some 800 miles off the coast of Japan. In Kennedy's view, some media reports give the impres- sion that the REEs are on the island when, in fact, they sit at the bottom of the ocean, three to four miles below the surface. Below is a selection of companies with rare earths projects. Appia Energy Corp. [API-CSE; APAAF- OTCQB; Germany-A0I.F, A0I.MU, A0I. BE] is planning to continue exploration in June 2018 on the Alces Lake property, northern Saskatchewan, including over - burden stripping, trenching and at least 2,000 metres of diamond drilling working toward a maiden resource estimated in Q4 2018 or Q1 2019. Geochemical highlights include world- class REE grades up to 45.92 wt% Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) over 1.85 metres from outcrop trench sampling in the Ivan Zone, off the main trend of the Wilson Zone which returned up to 18.53 wt% TREO over 2.7 metres. The channel sample results at the Ivan Zone are approximately equivalent to 8.5 oz/ton gold at today's REO and gold prices. The Alces Lake min - eralized zones are highly endowed with critical elements for the magnet industry; for example, 8.714 wt% Nd 2 O 3 and 0.115 wt% Dy 2 O 3 in the Ivan Zone. A recently completed mineralogy study indicated all REE mineralization is hosted solely within monazite. The project is located just north of the Athabasca Basin, famous for the world's highest-grade ura - nium mines. Appia also has NI 43-101 compliant resources of 47.7 M lbs TREE and 8.0 M lbs U 3 O 8 indicated and 133.2 M lbs. TREE and 20.1 M lbs. U 3 O 8 inferred in the Teasdale Zone in the Elliot Lake, ON, his- toric mining camp. The resources are largely unconstrained along strike and down dip. Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. [AVL- TSX; AVLNF-OTCQX; OU5-FSE] is holding the 100% owned Nechalacho REEs Project at Thor Lake, Northwest Territories that has high concentrations of the scarce heavy rare earth elements. With a completed feasibility study and an approved environ - mental assessment in place, the project is positioned to bring a new supply of REEs to the market when conditions improve. Commerce Resources Corp. [CCE- TSXV; CMRZF-OTC; D7H-FSE] has been advancing the Ashram rare earths deposit in Nunavik, northeastern Québec. The deposit has a measured resource of 1.6 mil - lion tonnes at 1.77% TREO, an indicated resource of 27.7 Mt at 1.90% TREO, and an inferred resource of 219.8 Mt at 1.88% TREO. A PEA based on a 4,000 tpd open-pit operation with an initial 25-year mine life has a pre-tax Net Present Value of $2.32 billion at a 10% discount rate, a pre-tax/ pre-finance Internal Rate of Return of 44%, and a pre-tax/pre-finance payback period of 2.25 years. Geomega Resources Inc. [GMA-TSXV; GOMRF-OTC] is developing its 100% owned Montviel rare earths/niobium proj - ect 100 km north of Lebel-sur-Quévillon. Significant indicated and inferred resources have been outlined. Geomega's subsidiary, Innord Inc., has successfully produced neodymium oxide of greater than 99.5% purity from industrial residues, considered to be magnet grade which has now been submitted for valida - tion to the magnet industry end-user who initially provided the industrial residue. Medallion Resources Ltd. [MDL- TSXV; MLLOF-OTC; MRD-FSE] is pursuing near-term production of REEs in North America, by sourcing and pro - cessing monazite sand, which is available as a by-product of heavy-mineral sands mining operations. Monazite, a rare earth phosphate mineral, contains significant amounts of the magnet metals neodymium and praseodymium. Recent test work extracting a REE con - centrate from monazite sand also produced trisodium phosphate (TSP). TSP wholesales for $500/tonne and has wide application as a food additive, cleaning agent, lubricant, stain remover and degreaser. "Our extrac- tion process makes available the phosphate component of monazite as we produce a rare earth concentrate rich in the magnet metals," a company spokesman said. Mkango Resources Ltd. [MKA-TSXV; AIM], through wholly-owned subsidiary Lancaster Exploration, has a 100% inter - est in two exclusive prospecting licenses in southern Malawi, Africa. The company's plan is to further develop the Songwe Hill REEs deposit, where a feasibility study is underway, and acquire additional REEs and other mineral opportunities. Rare Earth Salts of Beatrice Nebraska has developed an environmentally friendly technology for the separation and purifi - cation of REEs that provides a significant operational and capital cost advantage over solvent extraction methods. Its tech - nology is proven at commercial scale and functions on a broad range of rare earth concentrates. The company will produce REEs for wind turbines, hybrid automo- biles, advanced lasers for defense systems, flat panel screens and fiber optics. Rwenzori Rare Metals (private) has one of the largest REEs clay deposits outside of RARE EARTHS

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