Avalon Rare Metals Inc. is pleased to provide a progress report on the Company's Feasibility Study and related work on the Nechalacho Rare Earth Elements Project at Thor Lake, NWT (the "Project").

Feasibility Study

The Feasibility Study ("FS") for the Project, including the operations at Thor Lake and Pine Point, NWT and Geismar Louisiana remains on schedule for completion in Q2 2013. The following key elements of the FS have been completed:

Environmental Baseline work at Nechalacho and Pine Point;

Underground Mine plan and development schedule;
Tailings Facility;
Paste Backfill Plant;
Nechalacho Flotation Plant designs; and
Geismar Separation Plant designs.

Capital and Operating cost estimates are largely complete for those components of the Project where engineering design work is finished. Design criteria for the Pine Point Hydrometallurgical plant have been prepared and design work is now advancing on schedule.

Product Marketing

Avalon continues its efforts to secure product off-take agreements and in this regard, the Company is pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with an Asian company for the sale of its Enriched Zircon Concentrate ("EZC") product. The EZC contains most of the zirconium, tantalum, niobium recovered and approximately 15-20% of the rare earths. Samples of the EZC were initially sent to this prospective customer in August 2012 and successful processing tests led to the signing of this MOU in January 2013. The revenue from the EZC is expected to represent a significant percentage of the total revenue from the project. Negotiations for off-take agreements for the sale of separated rare earth oxides and carbonates are progressing.

Metallurgical Testwork

The Hydrometallurgical plant testwork program is virtually complete except for some minor impurity removal and kiln optimisation investigations. Mintek SA in Johannesburg, RSA is in the process of optimising final impurity removal processes ahead of completing a mini pilot plant campaign for the rare earth separation and refining operations. Process optimisation testwork for the flotation plant continues as opportunities to improve flotation performance are investigated. Various alternative reagent combinations will continue to be evaluated in an effort to reduce reagent consumption and enhance recoveries.

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Arafura Resources Limited recently announced its success in producing a separated rare earth oxide Lanthanum Oxide product.

The successful separation of Lanthanum completes Arafura's goal of developing five individual separated oxide products for initial commercialization of the Nolans Project.

The Nolans Project will see the annual production of rare earth oxides from the Whyalla Rare Earths Complex reach 20,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to about 10 per cent of the world's supply.

Arafura's separation of Lanthanum follows the production of samples of four other Rare Earth Oxide (REO) products from the Nolans Bore resource last year.

The four REOs included Cerium Oxide, Nd/Pr Oxide Didymium Oxide, SEG Oxide 'Mids' REO and HRE Oxide 'Heavy' REO.

The products were produced at pilot scale and show another stage of development within Nolans Project.
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Arafura chief executive officer Chris Tonkin said the downstream technology program continues to deliver excellent outcomes.

"The production of the fifth and final product at pilot scale, not only proves Arafura's processes and provides valuable engineering data, but will also provide further opportunity to engage potential customer for this high volume product," Mr Tonkin said.

"Our demonstrated ability to produce separated oxide products is a major point of difference between Arafura and other rare earth projects currently being considered for development in Australia and elsewhere around the world."

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Rare earths processor Great Western Minerals Group provided Wednesday a corporate update on its activities, and said that its preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Steenkampskraal project previously scheduled for the end of January has been postponed to sometime before the end of the first quarter.

The delay is due to the company gathering additional metallurgical and capex data in light of the recently expanded resource estimate announced last week.

Great Western last week released an updated NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate at Steenkampskraal, prepared by Snowden Mining Industry Consultants, which showed a mineral resource of 32,000 metric tonnes of total rare earth oxides plus yttrium oxide (TREO) under the indicated category, and another 42,100 metric tonnes under the inferred category. Both categories used a 1% TREO cut-off grade.

Indicated resources rose by more than double from the resource estimate last May, while inferred resources more than tripled.

On Monday, the company also announced a 9,400-metre, 65-hole diamond drilling program at its past-producing Steenkampskraal property in South Africa. With its new drilling program, Great Western said it will also do infill drilling on areas of lower data density in order to upgrade inferred mineral resources to the indicated category, and selected orientated core drilling in support of planned underground developments.

Great Western has announced a series of management additions and changes in recent weeks in preparation for a new stage in the life of the company, as it aims to become a fully integrated rare earth producer.

Currently, Great Western is a rare earth processor, whose specialty alloys are used in the magnet, battery, defence and aerospace industries. Produced at the company’s subsidiaries Less Common Metals (LCM) in Birkenhead, U.K. and Great Western Technologies (GWT) in Troy, Michigan, these alloys contain aluminum, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements (REE). 

Its development program at Steenkampskraal is central to ensure a strong flow of feedstock for its downstream processing - the company intends to be one of the first to produce significant quantities of the more valuable heavy rare earth oxides, which are important materials for alloys.

Also in the update today, the relocation of its UK-based LCM facility is now virtually complete, with the new location housing LCM's first strip casting furnace with provision for substantial expansion.

All equipment that had been in operation at the Valley Road site, including the analytical laboratory, has been relocated to Hooton Park and is now fully operational, Great Western said.

Sampling has been undertaken for all key customers, the company added, and LCM is progressing into advanced stages of "commercial supply contract / technical approval" stages.

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Pele Mountain Resources Inc.  announced additional drill results from the recent 13-hole drill program at its Eco Ridge Mine Rare Earths and Uranium Project at Elliot Lake, Ontario.

Nine of the eleven holes significantly exceeded the average U3O8 grade, and nine of the eleven holes significantly exceeded the total REO grade, of the resource wireframe.

Pele’s President and CEO, Al Shefsky, said:

These results continue to exceed expectations and have the potential to add substantial resources and years of mine-life to the project. The MCB clearly continues to the northwest and the mineralized intersections appear to be increasing in thickness and grade to the northwest, as depth increases.

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Galileo Resources has found "significant" high-grade rare earth mineralisation at a second target on the Nkombwa Hill project in Zambia.

It follows rock chip sampling and the highest find was recorded at 22.32% TREO (total rare earth oxide).

Notably, the firm said the mineralisation was in rock with very low contents of acid-consuming minerals, which suggests the rare earths could be readily leachable at low acid cost.

The firm says it can now progress to establishing a resource at the project.

It carried out 353 rock chip samples at what is called the "central" target.

Of these, 111, or 36%, assayed more than  2% TREO with an average assay of 4.17% TREO.

The complete suite of samples averaged 1.7%TREO, Galileo told investors.

Several areas of  continuous rare earth mineralisation was identified - the largest being over 350m long and 40-80m in width.

Executive chairman Colin Bird said: "The results of this sampling programme extend the area of high-grade rare earth mineralisation we have identified in the Nkombwa Hill Project. 

"We can now progress towards establishing a resource, and in order to achieve this, have already started work on establishing a suitable access road to the top of Nkombwa Hill. Drilling will commence as soon as the heavy summer rains end in late March 2013."

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The biggest mover this week was rare earth carbonate with a 4.4 percent fall.

The price of dysprosium oxide decreased 3.5 percent from the previous week. After a 2.5 percent decline, europium oxide closed out the week down as well.

Yttria saw a 2.1 percent decline over the past week. Cerium oxide remained unchanged for the week. Following a steady week, prices for lanthanum oxide closed flat as well.

The prices of neodymium oxide, praseodymium neodymium oxide, praseodymium oxide and samarium oxide prices all held steady from the previous week.

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Philip Paulwell, the country’s minister of science, technology, energy and mining, recently confirmed to lawmakers that researchers believe they have found “high concentrations of rare-earth elements” in the country’s red mud, or bauxite residue.

The announcement comes as manufacturing-focused countries, such as Japan, increase their efforts to secure supplies of REEs from sources outside of China. REEs are vital components in the manufacturing of modern technologies such as wind turbines, hybrid cars, green technologies, televisions and computer screens, and it is thought that the island nation will be able to benefit from the discovery.

In a written statement to Jamaica’s parliament, Paulwell notes that researchers from Nippon Light Metal Holdings believe REEs can be efficiently extracted in the region, where a once-flourishing bauxite industry has struggled amid global economic uncertainty.

It is believed that Nippon approached the Jamaican government in January 2012 with claims that it has the capability and knowledge to mine REEs found in the country’s red mud supply.

Discovery could boost economy

In the statement, Paulwell highlights that the discovery has the potential to provide a significant boost to the Caribbean island’s sputtering economy.

After gaining independence in 1962, Jamaica’s economy went through a period of successful growth, partially as a result of the mining of bauxite, which leaves behind large quantities of red mud – the same substance that researchers claim is a source of REEs, the UK’s Wired reported. While the country remains the world’s fifth-largest exporter of bauxite, ongoing global economic uncertainty has led to reduced demand and minimal growth across the sector.

“We are at the starting line of an opportunity that has the potential to redefine Jamaica’s economic prospects in a positive way,” said Paulwell. “[T]he Government of Jamaica perceives the extraction of the rare-earth elements that are present in Jamaica, to be an exciting new opportunity to earn much needed foreign exchange and create jobs.”

Authorities on board

While some feel the Jamaican find will amount to nothing more than media hype, interest has been piqued by the confirmation that the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) has already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nippon for the establishment of a pilot project aimed at REE extraction from red mud.

The MoU was signed in September last year and a pilot project will be undertaken to determine the scope of a proposed commercial project, according to Jamaica Information Service. The project is scheduled to last six months and construction of the plant is expected to commence in February.

The project has already been approved by the National Environment and Planning Agency and is currently awaiting final approval from other regulatory agencies.

Additionally, the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) had given its tentative support to the project. Environmental issues relating to production are normally one of the main hindrances in the progression of any REE project and an organization such as JET being onboard is a massive coup for the country’s future REE ambitions.

Diana McCaulay, JET founder and CEO, said the Trust is “in favour of using waste product to investigate economic opportunities.” The organization also said it has requested details about the precise type of processing that will be used in order to accurately assess any potential environmental impacts.

“It’s a good idea to take what is now essentially waste and make it into something useful that can be sold, that’s broadly speaking,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

An opportunity that must be pursued

In his statement, Paulwell notes that Nippon Light Metal’s objective is to extract an estimated 1,500 metric tonnes of REEs per annum and that the concentration of REEs discovered in testing samples so far is significantly higher than those from other red mud sites around the world.

“Rare earth oxides, the commodity that will be extracted, are currently being traded at rates of up to $3,500 US dollars per kilogram … when we compare that to alumina, which is now being traded at $330 US dollars per tonne, it is clear that this source presents an opportunity Jamaica must pursue, and which must be managed in such a way that Jamaica and Jamaicans benefit significantly,” he said.

It is of little surprise that the Jamaican government is pushing the project forward and that Nippon Light Metal has confirmed it will be investing $3 million in buildings and equipment for the project, as well as taking on all operating costs. The JBI and Nippon Light Metal will own the results in equal parts, while the government and Nippon Light Metal will jointly own any REEs produced during the pilot project phase.

While the project has moved forward at a remarkable pace, the Jamaican government has underlined that REE resource development may have environmental implications and that these need to be identified and managed. It noted that the aim of the pilot plant study is to specifically map out any potential impact on land, water and air, as well as the effect of neutralizing any by-products of REE extraction.

With this project still at such an early stage, it is unlikely to have any profound effect on the market in the short to medium term. However, investors will undoubtedly have noted the reasonable ease with which events have unfolded – a far cry from the regulatory minefield that other projects around the world are restricted by.

From  rareearthinvestingnews.com

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The mining of rare earth metals, used in everything from smart phones to wind turbines, has long been dominated by China. But as mining of these key elements spreads to countries like Malaysia and Brazil, scientists warn of the dangers of the toxic and radioactive waste generated by the mines and processing plants.

In November, the first shipment of raw “rare earth” minerals arrived at an $800 million processing plant on Malaysia’s east coast near the home of Tan Bun Teet. The plant, run by Australia’s Lynas Corporation, has since begun refining the rare earth metals, essential components in wind turbines, hybrid cars, smart phones, cruise missiles, and other high-tech products. Once fully operational, the plant would become the world’s largest processing facility of rare earths, breaking China’s near-monopoly on producing the prized elements.

But Tan and others in the region are concerned that the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant, known as LAMP, will be plagued by the severe environmental problems that have been the hallmark of rare earths processing plants in China and, more than two decades ago, in Malaysia itself. The plant lies in an industrial zone atop reclaimed swampland, just 12 miles from Kuantan, a city of 600,000. The chief worry is that the rare earth elements are bound up in mineral deposits with the low-level radioactive element thorium, exposure to which has been linked to an increased risk of developing lung, pancreatic, and other cancers.

“We are not against rare earths processing,” says Tan, a retired schoolteacher who leads a citizens’ group opposed to the plant. “We’re only against the inappropriate choice of site, and the way they’re going to keep the waste.” Tan echoes scientists’ concerns that the plant’s toxic wastewater will leach into groundwater, and that its storage ponds are vulnerable to the monsoons that slam the swampy coastline every autumn.

As global demand has surged in recent years for rare earth elements, fears have grown that China, which accounts for more than 95 percent of rare earths output, will withhold supplies, as it did temporarily two years ago during a dispute with Japan. As a result, across five continents and numerous countries — including the United States, Brazil, Mongolia, and India — rare earth processing projects are being launched or revived. With them comes the potential threats to the environment and human health that have plagued China’s processing sites.

“As the world’s hunger for these elements increases... the waste is going to increase,” says Nicholas Leadbeater, a chemist at the University of Connecticut whose research focuses on developing green technologies. “The more mines there are, the more trouble there’s going to be.” To avoid such problems, Leadbeater says some researchers are now looking into ways of recovering rare earths from existing products, and of manufacturing products capable of running without rare earths. Toyota, for example, is developing an electric motor that does not use rare earths in its battery, as most currently do.

Contrary to their name, the 17 rare earth elements are relatively common — their rarity comes from the labor involved in separating them from surrounding rock. The process requires a cocktail of chemical compounds and produces a “tremendous amount” of solid waste, according to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. China’s rare earths mines have used only a fraction of the world’s total supply, and substantial untapped reserves are found in Australia, the United States, parts of the former Soviet Union, and other countries. Global demand for rare earths dipped last year on the heels of a speculative bubble, but the EPA said in December there is a “high likelihood” that some of the elements will be in short supply by 2014.

In California, Molycorp Minerals recently reopened a rare earths processing operation that it abandoned in 2002 near Death Valley, after retooling its operation to meet environmental concerns over contaminated groundwater. In Brazil, mining giant Vale is considering whether to process rare earths at a copper mine in the Amazon. India recently agreed to export rare earths to Japan, and a Toyota subsidiary is preparing to mine rare earths in Vietnam. In Greenland, several companies are preparing to mine and process that island’s abundant rare earth resources, which will become more accessible as Greenland’s ice sheet continues to melt.

All of these projects, however, must come to grips with the toxic and radioactive legacy of rare earth mining. Scientists say under-regulated rare earths projects can produce wastewater and tailings ponds that leak acids, heavy metals and radioactive elements into groundwater, and they point out that market pressures for cheap and reliable rare earths may lead project managers to skimp on environmental protections.

Few independent studies chart the industry’s global ecological fallout. But no country has as many rare earths processing plants, and their attendant environmental problems, as China. Last year, China’s State Council reported that the country’s rare earths operations are causing “increasingly significant” environmental problems. A half century of rare earths mining and processing has “severely damaged surface vegetation, caused soil erosion, pollution, and acidification, and reduced or even eliminated food crop output,” the council reported, adding that Chinese rare earths plants typically produce wastewater with a “high concentration” of radioactive residues.

Bayan-Obo, China’s largest rare earths project, has been operating for more than four decades. According to the Germany-based Institute for Applied Ecology, the site now has an 11-square-kilometer waste pond — about three times the size of New York City’s Central Park — with toxic sludge that contains elevated concentrations of thorium.

China’s lax environmental standards have enabled it to produce rare earths at roughly a third the price of its international competitors, according to a 2010 report on the country’s rare earths industry by the Washington-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. The report noted that China “has never actually worked out pollutant discharge standards for the rare earth industry.”

Like nuclear power plants, rare earths projects require strict independent auditing in order to prevent environmental damage, according to Peter Karamoskos, a nuclear radiologist and the public’s representative at Australia’s Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. But as the rare earths industry expands to developing countries like Malaysia and Vietnam, such oversight will be unlikely. “A regulator will either be in the pocket of the industry or a government,” he says.

According to Gavin Mudd, an environmental engineer at Australia’s Monash University, rare earths mining provides a wide range of economic and social benefits and can be exploited in a responsible way. However, he says no company — including Mitsubishi and Lynas — has managed to set a good example.

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The mining of rare earth minerals in the Caribbean nation of Jamaica has come a step closer after its government gave the go-ahead to the feasibility study for a proposed extraction project.

Go Jamaica reports that the National Environment and Planning Agency has announced that it is satisfied proper due diligence was performed prior to the approval of a feasibility study by the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JJBI) for the proposed extraction of rare earth minerals from red bauxite mud.

A team of Japanese researchers from Nippon Light Metal Co. announced earlier this month that they had discovered an abundance of rare earth metal in Jamaica's red bauxite mining residue, and that they believed extraction of the minerals was economically feasible.

The development of rare earth minerals in Jamaica could provide a major boon to the economy of the small Caribbean nation.

Alternative sources of rare earth metals are highly coveted by industrialized economies, due to both their vital importance for a broad swathe of high tech goods, as well as the strangehold on supply currently enjoyed by China.

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Officers in Devon and Cornwall have recently become aware of a fraud whereby following a ‘cold call’, victims are persuaded to invest substantial amounts of money in rare earth metal oxides.

A spokesman said: “The victim tends to be elderly and contact is usually made by telephone and following pressurised selling, considerable amounts of personal savings are deposited into seemingly bone fide company bank accounts in the hope of a future substantial return, which in fact never materialises.”

Nationally, the fraud totals millions of pounds with thousands of victims, several of whom are in the South West.

Detective Sergeant Mark Newnham said: “Genuine companies do not ‘cold call’ and use intimidating and persuasive tactics, and I would urge anyone who is contacted out of the blue regarding such investments to think very carefully.

“Do not agree to invest on a whim without making basic checks into the company”.

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