Award of Greenland Exploration Licences

RNS Number : 4443I

Rare Earth Minerals PLC

25 July 2012

 



Rare Earth Minerals plc

("REM" or the "Company")

Award of significant Exploration Licences in Southern Greenland

Rare Earth Minerals (AIM: REM) announces today that after significant effort from the board, the Company has finally been awarded three key Exploration Licences in Southern Greenland by the Greenland Government, two of which form common boundaries to main licences owned by Greenland Minerals and Energy Limited "GGG" (ASX: GGG).

The three Exploration Licences (2012/13-15) cover a land mass area of 832 km² near the regional centres of Narsaq, Narsarsuaq and Qaqortoq.  Two licences, 2012/14 and 2012/15, abut the northern and eastern boundaries of GGG's licences that encompass the world class Kvanefjeld, Sørenson, Zone 3 and Steenstrupfjeld Rare Earth Element ("REE") deposits.

GGG's latest stated estimates for inferred and indicated mineral resources at the Kvanefjeld Deposit as defined by JORC (March 2011) include a metal inventory of 6.55 million tonnes ("Mt") of Total Rare Earth Oxides ("TREOs") (including 0.24 Mt of Heavy Rare Earth Oxides "HREOs" and 0.53 Mt of Yttrium Oxide), 350 Mlbs of U₃O₈ and 3 Blb's of Zinc.

Including the inferred mineral resources for their Sorensen and Zone 3 deposits, both announced in 2012,  GGG's global metal inventory in inferred and indicated categories was 575 Mlbs U₃O₈, 10.3 Mt TREO and 2.24 Mt Zinc (at a 150 ppm U₃O₈ cut-off). The rare earth resource inventory included 0.37 Mt HREO and 0.84 Mt Yttrium Oxide.

Refer to GGG's website: www.ggg.gl for full details of their projects, location and resources.

A map showing REM's Exploration Licences is on the Company's website: www.rareearthmineralsplc.com

David Lenigas, REM's Chairman stated:

"The Company has been working for over a year to secure these key Exploration Licences in Greenland, which surround one of world's largest resources of REEs outside of China. In addition to REEs, South Greenland also has proven potential for gold, niobium, tantalum and zirconium mineralisation."

"Now that these Licences have been granted, we have commissioned SRK Exploration Services Ltd. ("SRK ES") to commence an exploration programme to assess the mineral potential of the licence areas. SRK ES is part of the global SRK Group and has extensive experience of mineral exploration in South Greenland.  The SRK Group is one of GGG's main geological consultants and has completed Mineral Resource Estimates for GGG's assets as well as other exploration projects in the area."

"REM is actively pursuing further exploration licences in South Greenland, and we will keep the market informed of progress as events materialize."

For further information please contact:       

Rare Earth Minerals Plc

David Lenigas, Director

[phone]

W.H. Ireland

James Joyce

Nick Field

[phone]

Glossary

TERM	DEFINITION
Ce, Ce2O3	Cerium, Cerium oxide
Cut-off grade	When determining economically viable Mineral Reserves, the lowest grade of mineralised material that qualifies as ore.
Deposit	A naturally occurring accumulation of minerals that may be considered economically valuable.
Dy, Dy2O3	Dysprosium, Dysprosium oxide
Er, Er2O3	Erbium, Erbium oxide
Eu, Eu2O3	Europium, Europium oxide
Grade	The quantity of ore or metal in a specified quantity of rock
Granite	A medium to coarse grained plutonic igneous rock usually light coloured and consisting largely of quartz and feldspar;
High grade	Pertaining to ore which is rich in the metal being mined.
Ho, Ho2O3	Holmium, Holmium oxide
HREE  or Heavy Rare Earth Elements	Comprising Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu. Y is often included in the HREE group since it tends to occur in the same ore deposits as other HREE and exhibits similar chemical properties, despite its lower atomic mass. Of higher value than LREEs.
HREO or Heavy Rare Earth Oxides	Comprising the oxide forms of HREE.  Conventionally the HREE content of a deposit is expressed in the oxide form.
JORC	Joint Ore Reserves Committee (of the AusIMM and other institutions)
JORC code	Australasian code for reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves.
La, La2O3	Lanthanum, Lanthanum oxide
Low Grade	Pertaining to ore which is comparatively low in content for the metal which is being mined.
LREE or Light Rare Earth Elements	Comprising La, Ce, Pr, Nd Pm and Sm
LREO orLight Rare Earth Oxides	Comprising the oxide forms of LREE.  Conventionally the LREE content of a deposit is expressed in the oxide form.
Lu, Lu2O3	Lutetium, Lutetium oxide
Mineral	A natural, inorganic, homogeneous material that can be expressed by a chemical formula.
Mineral Resource	A concentration or occurrence of material of intrinsic economic interest in or on the Earth's crust in such a form and quantity that there are reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction.  The location, quantity, grade, geological characteristics and continuity of a Mineral Resource are known, estimated or interpreted from specific geological evidence and knowledge.  Mineral Resources are sub-divided, in order of increasing geological confidence, into Inferred, Indicated and Measured categories.
Mineralisation	The process by which minerals are introduced into a rock.  More generally, a term applied to accumulations of economic or related minerals in quantities ranging from weakly anomalous to economically recoverable.
Mineralised	Containing ore minerals.
Nd, Nd2O3	Neodymium, Neodymium oxide
Niobium	Chemical element with symbol Nb. Used in alloys and various superconducting materials
Ore	Mineral bearing rock that contains one or more minerals, at least one of which can be mined and treated profitably under current or immediately foreseeable economic conditions.
Ore Reserve	The economically mineable part of a Measured or Indicated Mineral Resource.  It includes diluting materials and allowances for losses which may occur when the material is mined. Appropriate assessments, which may include feasibility studies, have been carried out, and include consideration of and modification by realistically assumed, mining, metallurgical, economic, marketing, legal, environmental, social and governmental factors. These assessments demonstrate at the time of reporting that extraction could reasonably be justified. Ore Reserves are sub-divided in order of increasing confidence into Probable Ore Reserves and Proved Ore Reserves.
Orebody	A continuous, well-defined mass of material of sufficient ore content to make extraction economically feasible.
Pm	Promethium
Pr, Pr2O3	Praseodymium, Praseodymium oxide
Prospect	A mineral property, the value of which has not been proved by exploration.  To search for minerals or oil by looking for surface indications, by drilling boreholes, or both.
Rare Earth Elements (REEs) or Rare Earths	A series of metallic lanthanide elements with similar chemical properties comprising HREEs and LREEs (but excluding Pm for the purposes of the geological REE occurrences having regard to its unstable nature). Widely used in technological devices.
Rare Earth Oxides (REOs)	The oxide forms of REEs.  Oxide grades are conventionally used when stating grades for REE deposits.
Reserves	That part of a mineral resource which has been demonstrated to be economically exploitable.
Resource	The total quantity of a mineral which is calculated to lie within given boundaries and which could be economically workable.
Sm, Sm2O3	Samarium, Samarium oxide
SRK ES	SRK Exploration Services
Tantalum	Chemical element with symbol Ta. Main use is for capacitors in electronic equipment, as also as a component in alloys.
Tb, Tb2O3	Terbium, Terbium oxide
Tm, Tm2O3	Thulium, Thulium oxide
TREO	Total Rare Earth Oxides - the sum of the concentrations of rare earth oxides
U, U3O8	Uranium, Uranium oxide
Uranium	Hard, lustrous, silver-white, malleable and ductile, radioactive, metallic element of the actinide series.
Y, Y2O3	Yttrium, Yttrium oxide
Yb, Yb2O3	Ytterbium, Ytterbium oxide
Zirconium	A chemical element with symbol Zr.  Commonly used as an alloying agent due to its excellent resistance to corrosion, as a refractory mineral in furnaces, and for the production of thin ceramic coatings.

Mining of Radioactive Minerals in Greenland

Greenland currently imposes a ban on the exploration and exploitation of radioactive elements where these occur at "above background levels" (as they do at the GGG projects and other REE-Nb-Ta projects in the area). This prohibition includes mining of these elements as by-products.  As it stands this law would prohibit mining in areas where concentrations of radioactive elements exceed background levels. Background levels for the alkaline complexes in South Greenland that host such mineral occurrences have been stated by the Minister for Industry & Resources to be up to 60 ppm.  

The Greenland government is promoting debate through a process of public consultation on the issue of mining uranium and other radioactive elements.  Support for a change in policy has come from the South Greenland Municipal Council, major labour unions and some political parties.  In October 2010, the Greenland government amended its Standard Conditions for Mineral Licences to allow companies that have delineated a resource that falls into this category to apply for approval to conduct feasibility, environmental and community studies into projects that contain radioactive elements at above background levels. As a further indication of a possible change in policy the Greenland Government agreed in December 2011 to amend the conditions of an exploration licence held by GGG to include radioactive elements. This change may give GGG the ability to apply for an Exploitation Licence that includes minerals such as uranium. REM understands however that the extraction ban for now remains in place.

 

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