Auxico Resources Sets to Build Rare Earth Refinery in Colombia

Auxico Resources of Canada is planning to build a 10,000 square meter rare earth refinery in a free trade zone in the city of Santa Marta, Colombia. The plant will have a throughput of 36,000 tons per year at an estimated cost of $116.2 million.

The company says this will be the first rare earth refinery in the Western Hemisphere. It has signed a lease with the option to purchase four parcels of land in the Zona Franca Tayrona industrial park.

Auxico's plant will use standard metallurgical processes and innovative extraction technologies. Our goal is to build a low-energy plant with significantly shorter cost-efficient cycle times and a lower overall environmental impact.

Feedstock for the new refinery will come from Auxico's currently developing properties in Colombia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company is also finalizing supply agreements with producers in Brazil and Bolivia.

Auxico signed a technology license agreement for the Ultrasonic Assisted Extraction process (UAEx) earlier this year. In tests conducted by the company over the past 12 months, UAEx has been shown to recover at least 80% of selected rare earth elements within a two-hour leaching time.

Laboratory tests have shown that when the UAEx process is combined with certain acids and used at different frequencies, it can break down the ore into fine particles, thereby reducing the leaching cycle.

Auxico holds mineral and surface rights on the Minastyc property in Vichada, Colombia. It has made initial discoveries of rare earth mineralization with 56.9% total rare earths after leaching and a second discovery 1.6 km away with 55% total rare earths after leaching.

The rare-earth elements are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous silvery-white soft heavy metals. Auxico Resources Canada is a Canadian company founded in 2014. The elements have diverse applications in electrical and electronic components, lasers, glass, magnetic materials, and industrial processes. The company is actively engaged in the exploration and production of high-grade ores.

Auxico owns a 100% interest in the Zamora property (Mexico), which has over 15 historical mines and workings extending along a 6 km northeast-southwest trending structure southeast of the city of Culiacán. The Company has sampled these historical mines, which indicate up to 10 kg/t of silver and 20 g/t of gold.

Auxico Resources has discovered numerous tantalum and niobium occurrences in Colombia and Brazil with grades in excess of 25% tantalum and 15% niobium. These discoveries have also demonstrated the presence of key minerals (including rare earths) such as scandium, neodymium, erbium, yttrium, hafnium and cerium in these ores.