Search Minerals to Receive C$1.25 Million for Pilot Plant

Search Minerals Inc. (TSXV:SMY) announced that it will receive C$1.25 million in R&D funding from Research & Development Corporation Newfoundland and Labrador and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. 
The money will be put towards the construction and operation of a pilot plant that will be used to test the company’s metallurgical process.
As quoted in the press release:

Search will receive C$750,000 towards the project from RDC and will receive a C$500,000 conditionally repayable contribution from ACOA. The Company will contribute an additional C$650,000 in working capital.  The total Project cost is approximately C$ 1,900,000.

Greg Andrews, president and CEO of Search, commented:

We are very pleased to have the support of both RDC and ACOA to provide C$ 1.25M R&D funding for this C$ 1.9M project.  Our successful collaboration with RDC and ACOA in 2014, led to the metallurgy breakthrough, whereby grinding, flotation, gravity and magnetic separation were eliminated from the simplified process flow sheet.   This larger scale integrated pilot plant operation will provide Search with the critical engineering data to advance the process through to commercialization. The test will also provide Search with sufficient mixed REO oxide to provide to potential partners to test the downstream separation process into individual rare earth elements.  Our goal is to be able to provide a low-cost, consistent mixed REO oxide product, which would be used to create a stable and consistent final rare earth metal product.  Search is able to finance its’ contribution with proceeds from the recent sale of the Strange Lake claims, and the Starved Acid Leach Technology with minimum dilution to our shareholders.

Click here to read the full Search Minerals Inc. (TSXV:SMY) press release.