Montero’s Testwork at Wigu Hill Achieves 77 Percent REE Recovery

Montero Mining and Exploration Ltd. (TSXV:MON) provided updates on testing done at the Wigu Hill Rare Earth Project in Tanzania.

As quoted in the press release:

The program included a calcination pre-treatment step after which the residue was then subjected to a single stage hydrochloric acid leach to extract the REE’s. The preliminary testwork results achieved a recovery of 77% of REE’s with significantly reduced reagent consumption compared with the prior three-stage hydrometallurgical leach process.

Montero’s  President and CEO, Tony Harwood, said:

Mintek and our team are focused on lowering operating and capital costs of our proposed hydrometallurgical flowsheet for the economic extraction of rare earths from the Wigu Hill Project. Preliminary testwork completed by Mintek represents a significant step in simplifying the hydrometallurgical process and potentially reducing costs. Montero is examining the cost-benefit of a revised flowsheet in order to lower the cost of the extraction of REE’s from the bastnaesite-rich carbonatite material at Wigu Hill.

To view the whole press release, click here.