Pele's flagship property is its 100-percent owned Eco Ridge Mine Rare Earths and Uranium Project. Eco Ridge is located in Elliot Lake, Ontario, a proven mining camp with historic production exceeding 300-million pounds of uranium oxide ("U3O8") and the only mining camp in Canada to have achieved commercial production of rare earth oxides ("REO").
Pele recently announced results of a NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment (the "PEA") of Eco Ridge. The PEA was prepared by Roscoe Postle Associates ("RPA") and demonstrates that Eco Ridge has potential to become a profitable producer of REO and U3O8. The PEA is the culmination of several years of exploration and pre-development work at Eco Ridge by Pele and its world-class technical team.
Eco Ridge has inherent advantages that may enable its development ahead of other REO projects including:
- It is one of the only North American REO deposits with a positive NI 43-101 PEA.
- Excellent progress has been achieved toward improved recoveries and increased mineral resources from those reported in the PEA base case, especially for REO. (See more below.)
- It features some of the most critical rare earth elements, including neodymium, dysprosium, and yttrium, and is diversified with uranium.
- The deposit outcrops at surface for more than four kilometres and dips at a shallow angle in a consistent, predictable manner over a vast area; geology, mineralogy, and metallurgy are well-understood from current and previous exploration.
- Outstanding regional infrastructure is already in-place: roads, railway, power, natural gas, airport, and deep-water ports.
- Enthusiastic local support for the Project and a highly-qualified local work force.
Sharp price increases in REO, caused by surging global demand and uncertain future supply, has led to new initiatives focused on transforming Eco Ridge from a uranium-focused to an REO-focused project. Recently announced processing design improvements have resulted in sharply higher recoveries of critical REO in bench-scale testing, presenting opportunities to improve upon the PEA and place significantly greater emphasis on REO production than was envisioned previously.
While the leaching and bioleaching processing methods used in the PEA have been considered appropriate for uranium recovery, they achieve relatively poor recovery of rare earths in monazite. By employing well-established ore concentration and acid baking methods, Pele can improve mineral recoveries by up to 10-fold for Light REO such as neodymium oxide, and by more than double for Heavy REO such as dysprosium and yttrium oxides, while increasing uranium production as well. The Eco Ridge processing flow chart will be optimized for REO recovery and will include crushing, grinding, and ore concentration using magnetic separation and floatation prior to acid-baking.
Scoping-level studies are underway to estimate operating and capital costs based on significantly higher recovery rates achieved with acid-baking. These studies will be used to support a new economic model that will be announced in an updated PEA during the first quarter of 2012. The updated PEA will provide a roadmap for the Company as it transitions Eco Ridge into the feasibility and licensing stages. Pele is also preparing for larger scale bench testing and pilot plant operations during the first half of 2012.
Click here to read more about Development Progress at Eco Ridge.
The most recent NI 43-101 Resource Estimate for Eco Ridge is comprised of:
- An Indicated Resource that includes 51.9-million pounds of Total REO (14.3-million tonnes at 0.164-percent) and 15.2-million pounds U3O8 (14.3-million tonnes at 0.048-percent).
- An Inferred Resource that includes 96.3-million pounds Total REO (33.1-million tonnes at 0.132-percent) and 31.4-million pounds U3O8 (33.1-million tonnes at 0.043-percent).
Pele recently discovered that REO mineralization outside the MCB extends much farther than previously realized with one resampled drill hole revealing more than 140 metres of continuous mineralization. The Company subsequently launched a core resampling program to more accurately assess REO content in the Hanging Wall above the MCB. This program is expected to add significant additional mineralization to the Project, allowing for scalability of future production rates. Furthermore, lateral deposit extensions discovered in step-out holes from the latest Pele drill program but not yet included in the Resource Estimate, are also expected to increase the deposit size.
Click here for a more detailed Resource Estimate at Eco Ridge.
Recent extraordinary REO market developments, sparked by China's reduction of export quotas, have resulted in sharply higher prices, inciting a rush to find and bring to production new sources outside of China. With well-understood geology, mineralogy and metallurgy, excellent regional infrastructure, and strong local support, Eco Ridge is an ideal location for a safe, secure, and reliable long-term supply of REO and U3O8.
Pele's development team at Eco Ridge is led by Pele's Executive Vice-President Roger Payne P. Eng. and includes Rare Metals Advisors Drs. Tony Mariano and William Bird along with several highly qualified consulting firms including RPA, SNC Lavalin, SENES Consultants Limited, and Golder Associates Ltd. Pele is assembling a world-class technical team in preparation for mine development at Eco Ridge.
Note: The PEA is preliminary in nature. It includes inferred mineral resources which are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized.
