Ucore Rare Metals Updates on SuperLig®-One Pilot Plant

Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSXV:UCU,OTCQX:UURAF) released an update on preparations for its SuperLig®-One rare earths separation pilot plant. The SuperLig®-One facility is expected to be completed and ready for fluid testing in March 2016.
As quoted in the press release:

Approximately 40 tonnes of material sourced from the Company’s flagship Bokan – Dotson Ridge (“Bokan”) property was processed at Tomra Systems ASA (“Tomra”) of Koblenz Germany utilizing DEXRT ore sorting technology (“DEXRT”). The DEXRT process resulted in approximately 19 tonnes of sorted rare earth bearing material. The Tomra work represents the first step in the Company’s process flowsheet, delivering upgraded material that is consistent with prior test work, eliminating approximately 52% of the feed as waste while retaining 96% of the rare earth oxides (see Ucore Press Release dated June 25, 2013).
A 3 tonne bulk sample was split from the sorted material and has been shipped to SGS Lakefield Research Ltd (“SGS”) of Lakefield, Ontario. SGS will utilize the circuit developed for the Company’s Preliminary Economic Assessment (”PEA”) which includes crushing, grinding and magnetic separation, followed by a nitric acid leach, to yield approximately 500 gallons of pregnant leach solution (“PLS”). In addition to delivering a PLS suitable for separation in the SuperLig®-One pilot facility, the SGS work will provide further independent confirmation of the process flowsheet set out in the PEA (see Ucore Press Release dated January 15, 2013).

Jim McKenzie, president and CEO of Ucore, commented:

We’re excited to be in a position to demonstrate the use of the SuperLig® platform for the separation at pilot scale of such critically required military, technology and industrial metals. The maiden run of SuperLig®-One appears to represent the first time that strategic metals such as dysprosium, terbium and europium have been produced on US soil using American feedstock, both individually and at high purity. The use of a domestic intellectual property to produce critical domestic materials demonstrates an emerging ability to establish a stand-alone rare earth supply chain in the West, independent of increasingly unpredictable Chinese sources. The unveiling of SuperLig®-One ranks high on the list of Ucore’s accomplishments to date, and we’re proud to deliver this milestone to our shareholders and prospective customers.

Click here to read the full Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSXV:UCU,OTCQX:UURAF) press release.