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PAW says its Mrima Hill project in Kenya is one of the world’s highest-grade niobium deposits and is “the highest-grade undeveloped rare earth deposit outside of China.”
Vancouver-based PAW rose from 7 cents, to 9 cents on the day, and saw a 4-cent increase for the week, a gain of 80 percent, trading on heavy volumes in Toronto.
In its news release, Pacific Wildcat said Mrima Hill is one of the world’s highest-grade niobium deposits, with 5.8 million tonnes graded at 1.4-percent Nb2O5 in the indicated category and 17.5 million tonnes inferred. The latter is a 171-percent increase over previous estimates.
On the rare earth side, PAW said the report shows Mrima Hill is “the world’s highest grade undeveloped rare earth deposit” outside of China, where total resources exceed 0.75 million tonnes of contained total rare earth oxides (TREO). The deposit, according to the report, has a high-grade indicated component of 11.2 million tonnes graded 6.93-percent TREO and an inferred resource of 15.16 million tonnes at 7.12-percent TREO. Of the total indicated TREO resource, nearly a quarter, 21 percent, contains “critical” rare earth oxides, including neodymium, dysprosium, europium, terbium and yttrium, according to Pacific Wildcat.
“We are very pleased with this high grade resource estimate which confirms the Mrima Hill Niobium and Rare Earth Project to be a world class deposit in two metal suites,” PAW President and CEO Darren Townsend said in a statement.
A preliminary economic assessment is expected on the project by the end of this year.
Pacific Wildcat’s resource estimate follows an announcement last week that the company has developed a flow sheet to recover niobium and rare earths into saleable products. Bench-scale testing achieved 90-percent dissolution for niobium and 99 percent for rare earths through a hydrometallurgical process.
Securities Disclosure: I, Andrew Topf, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.