The Conversation (0)
Quest Rare Minerals (TSX:QRM) announced a revised NI 43-101 compliant Indicated and Inferred resource estimate for its B-Zone rare earth element deposit within the Strange Lake Project, Québec; Indicated and Inferred Resources for the deposit more than doubles.
As quoted in the press release:
The base-case resource was estimated using a total rare earth oxide (TREO+Y) cut-off grade of 0.5% TREO (Table 1a) and represents sufficient Indicated Resource to satisfy a minimum 25-year open-pit production model (see Figure 1) established for Quest’s B-Zone Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) study (see Press Release : September 9, 2010). At this cut-off, the B-Zone hosts an Indicated Resource of 278.1 million tonnes grading 0.93% TREO+Y, 1.92% zirconium oxide (ZrO2), 0.18% niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5) and 0.05% hafnium oxide (HfO2) and a heavy rare earth oxide (HREO)/TREO ratio of 38% (Table 1a) and a further Inferred Resource of 214.4 million tonnes grading 0.85% TREO+Y, 1.71% ZrO2, 0.14% Nb2O5 and 0.05% HfO2. Contained within the Indicated Resource is a near-surface higher-grade “Enriched Zone” (previously named the “Pegmatite Spine”, see Figure 2) containing 20.0 million tonnes at 1.44% TREO+Y, 2.59% ZrO2, 0.34% Nb2O5 and0.06% HfO2 and a HREO/TREO ratio of 50% (Table 1b). A lower-grade Granite Domain within the Indicated Resources contains 258.1 million tonnes at 0.89% TREO+Y, 1.87% ZrO2, 0.16% Nb2O5 and 0.05% HfO2 (Table 1c).
The data represents a more than doubling of the Indicated and Inferred Resources for the deposit when compared to Quest’s previous resource estimate (see Press Release : April 11, 2011), to a vertical depth of 150 m. Limited deeper drilling indicates that mineralization continues down to 340 m below surface.
Quest Rare Minerals President and CEO Peter Cashin said:
The increased resources will provide important flexibility for the mine plan being considered by our Pre-Feasibility Study and will support a substantial project life. It is especially pleasing that the near-surface Enriched Zone tonnage has also more than doubled from previous estimates.
Click here to read the Quest Rare Minerals (TSX:QRM) press release