Last checked at 3 Dec 2014 08:24
3 December 2014
Rare Earth Minerals Plc.
("Rare Earth Minerals", "REM" or "the Company")
Yangibana Mining Scoping Study
Indicative NPV of $900 million to $1.2 billion over 15 years.
Rare Earth Minerals (AIM: REM) advises that Hastings Rare Metals Limited ("Hastings"), REM's 70% joint venture partner in the Yangibana Rare Earths Element ("REE") joint venture ("Yangibana") in Western Australia, have announced the initial results of the Snowden Scoping Study which supports the significant economic potential of Yangibana.
The full Hastings news release dated 3 December 2014 is available at:
http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20141203/pdf/42v75kjmwtdkq0.pdf
HIGHLIGHTS (From Hastings news release)
· Results provide confidence to advance the Yangibana Project into Pre-Feasibility Study
· Indicative pre-tax Net Present Value (NPV) of $900 million to $1.2 billion based on open pit mining at 1.0 million tonnes per annum (tpa) over a 15-year period
· Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 62.5%
· Capex of approximately $390m with payback within 1.6 years of start of production
· Scoping Study based on Yangibana production of approximately 2,700tpa of neodymium oxide, 750tpa of praseodymium oxide, 40tpa of dysprosium oxide and 70tpa of europium oxide
· Preliminary beneficiation test results incorporated into Study
· Metallurgical parameters for downstream processing based on similar deposits
· Current commodity prices used in the Scoping Study with no projected metal price escalation, and an exchange rate of US$0.80
David Lenigas, The Company's Chairman, comment;
"Yangibana continues to shape up to be a significant rare earths element project outside of China, which controls the majority of the world's REE's, with this latest independent report from Snowden demonstrating the Project's compelling economic potential."
"REM is 30% free carried to Bankable Feasibility Study on the Yangibana Joint Venture and is proving to be an excellent asset within our diversified portfolio."
Details of Ownership:
On the 1 December 2011 REM announced that it had acquired a 30% free carried interest to Bankable Feasibility Study ("BFS") of the Yangibana North Rare Earth Deposit. Therefore the exploration costs until the commencement of the BFS are borne solely by Hastings Rare Metals Limited (70% owners and operator).The same terms agreed and announced on 1 December 2012 also apply to five out of the seven additional targets to be drilled which includes Lion's Ear, Hook, Gossan, Kane's Gossan, and Yangibana South.
Glossary:
· TREO is the sum of the oxides of the heavy rare earth elements (HREO) and the light rare earth elements (LREO).
HREO is the sum of the oxides of the heavy rare earth elements europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), lutetium (Lu), and yttrium (Y).
CREO is the sum of the oxides of neodymium (Nd), europium (Eu), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), and yttrium (Y) that were classified by the US Department of Energy in 2011 to be in critical short supply in the foreseeable future.
LREO is the sum of the oxides of the light rare earth elements lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), and samarium (Sm).
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For further information please contact:
Rare Earth Minerals plc +44 (0) 207 440 0647
David Lenigas
Kiran Morzaria
WH Ireland Limited (NOMAD & Joint Broker) +44 (0) 207 220 1666
James Joyce
Mark Leonard
Hume Capital plc (Joint Broker) +44 (0) 203 693 1470
Guy Peters
Jon Belliss
Square1 Consulting
David Bick, Mark Longson +44 (0) 207 929 5599