NioCorp Receives Positive Results for Rare Earth Production at Elk Creek Project

NioCorp Development Ltd. announced positive results from its ongoing metallurgical work to extract rare earth elements from ore samples from the Elk Creek project.

Salt Lake City-based L3 Process Development (L3) has been conducting small-scale rare earth recovery and process improvement tests for NioCorp and building a comprehensive demonstration plant at its facility in Quebec. To date, L3 has completed dozens of separate tests using a portion of a three-ton representative ore sample collected from the Elk Creek project drill core inventory.

L3's recent work has focused on potential rare earth elements (REEs) recovery, including extraction of REE values from the high acidity streams in the existing Elk Creek niobium/scandium/titanium process flow. In a recent development, L3 has demonstrated that scandium can be effectively extracted and separated from REEs in solution using a phosphate-based extractant. This phosphate-based recovery process has been shown to replace the phosphoric acid-based extraction process in the current project design.

"The data from this recent solvent extraction test work is very encouraging," said Tommee Larochelle, Ing. PE, MBA, Chief Technical Officer of L3 Process Development. Tommee Larochelle, Ing. PE, MBA, Chief Technical Officer of L3 Process Development, said, "Both the phosphate and amide-based extraction tests went exactly as planned, and I look forward to continuing our efforts to validate this cost-effective way to produce commercial rare-earth products from the Elk Creek process. "

L3 is currently building a small integrated demonstration plant at its Quebec facility that will address the company's 2019 feasibility study proposal for hydrometallurgy and demonstrate potential rare earth recovery operations.

Scott Honan, NioCorp's Chief Operating Officer, said, "We are very pleased with the progress L3 has made to date and we look forward to continuing to work with them with the goal of adding more value to the economics of the Elk Creek project through potential rare earths."

NioCorp is developing a superalloy materials project in southeast Nebraska that will produce niobium, scandium and titanium. The company is also evaluating the potential to produce several rare earth byproducts from the project. Niobium is used to produce superalloys as well as high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steel, a lighter, stronger steel used in automotive, structural and pipeline applications.

Scandium is a superalloy material that can be combined with aluminum to make stronger and more corrosion-resistant alloys. Scandium is also an important component of advanced solid oxide fuel cells. Titanium is used in a variety of superalloys and is a key component of pigments used in paper, paints, and plastics, as well as in aerospace applications, armor, and medical implants. Magnetic rare earths, such as neodymium, praseodymium, terbium, and dysprosium, are key to the manufacture of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets, which are widely used in defense and civilian applications.

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