American Rare Earths’ share price has been up almost 8% on news that its progress towards a Preliminary Economic Analysis (PEA) for Halleck Creek has just got a boost from the latest highly encouraging metallurgical test results.

As the company works towards the PEA, plus an updated JORC Resource for its flagship project, the latest results back up previous met test rounds indicating American Rare Earths (ASX:ARR) ore can be effectively processed using conventional technologies.

This means lower initial capital expenditure and reduced ongoing operating costs for the project with a Maiden JORC Resource of 1.43 billion tonnes. Within that is an estimated 4.73 million tonnes of Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO) with about 24% of that high value magnet rare earth elements.

Significantly, recoveries of Neodymium and Praseodymium Oxide (NdPrO) increased a whopping 28.5% from prior test work in initial results. Recoveries of those targeted rare earth materials are now 82-87% of the NdPr using conventional processing technologies.

Neodymium and Praseodymium are essential to the clean energy transition because of their use in batteries for electric vehicles and offshore wind turbines. They’re also used in many consumer electronics.

CEO Donald Swartz said: “We are encouraged by the results of our most recent metallurgical tests provided by Wood PLC because they indicate that the properties of the Halleck Creek deposit may allow us to extract greater recoveries of magnet metals using simpler, lower-cost technology.”

Block flow diagrams are now complete and will be used in a subsequent phase of met testing to finalise a flowsheet, which will be used in the PEA.

As part of the ongoing work towards the release of the PEA the core material from the ongoing program is being prepared to go to labs for the next phase of detailed testing.

In addition to the latest promising results, the main reagents used in the recovery process are in plentiful supply in the western US and the project is close to an interstate highway and rail transport, further reducing cost pressures.

 

Targeting updated JORC

The good news from the lab closely follows ARR announcing that it’s moving towards an updated JORC Exploration Target.

Earlier this month the company told the market that the northern summer mapping and sampling program revealed potential for an even larger and higher-grade rare earths resource. Meanwhile the development drilling program in the Overton Mountain area of Halleck Creek is progressing on schedule, with drills hitting rare earth element (REE) mineralisation at considerably greater depths.

One core hole was completed to 305m and exhibited REE mineralisation throughout – and the deposit is still open at depth. Prior drilling in the area was limited to less than 175m.

Also in Wyoming is the highly prospective new Beaver Creek Project which yielded high-grade assay results in September as ARR boosted its land holding in the area by 85%.

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with American Rare Earths, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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