The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
UCU: TSX.V
President and CEO: Jim McKenzie
Chief Operating Officer: Ken Collison
Vice President, Business Development: Mark MacDonald
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. carried out 2014 exploration programs at both its Bokan-Dotson Ridge rare earth elements project in Southeast Alaska and Ray Mountain REE-tin project in the Interior region of the state.
A C$7.8-million private placement completed in April, along with C$2.8 million of working capital Ucore had on the books at the end of March, is anticipated to provide ample funds to meet the company's needs into 2015, including a C$2.5-million drill program at Bokan Mountain.
Late in 2013, Ucore published an updated resource for the Dotson Ridge deposit at Bokan Mountain that outlines an indicated resource of 2.9 million metric tons averaging 0.614 percent (39.7 million metric tons) total rare earth oxides and an inferred resource of 2 million metric tons averaging 0.605 percent (26.6 million pounds) TREOs.
Roughly 40 percent of the TREOs are the higher valued heavy rare earths, many of which are considered critical to the green energy, defense and high-technology sectors.
The smaller of two rigs drilling at Bokan during 2014 focused on upgrading inferred resources to the indicated category by infill drilling of the rare earths deposit.
The larger rig drilled multiple deep holes with the goal of expanding the resource to depth, as well as completing a number of geotechnical holes and groundwater monitoring wells to obtain supplementary data for use in the engineering and permitting of the project.
This field work is part of a larger program focused on collecting the last bits of information needed to complete a plan of operation that can be submitted for permitting and finalize a feasibility study scheduled for delivery in 2015.
The feasibility study builds upon a 2012 preliminary economic assessment that anticipates an underground mine feeding 1,500 tons of ore to a 750-metric-tons-per-day mill and a state-of-the-art processing facility at Bokan Mountain.
The operation outlined in the PEA envisions the production of 2,250 metric tons of rare earth oxides per year during the first five years of full production; including an annual output of 95 metric tons of dysprosium oxide, 14 metric tons of terbium oxide, and 515 metric tons of yttrium oxide.
The ability to run a mill half the size of the ore being mined is due to an x-ray sorter that will reject half the feed as REE-barren waste prior to milling.
By halving the material, the sorter is essentially doubling the mill head grade.
Another 50 percent of the material is slated to be removed via magnetic separation between the mill and leaching circuit.
While the PEA envisions a small, temporary facility to store tailings during the early stages of development, at a certain point the mine will consume all of the tailings produced to fill underground voids.
As Ucore presses ahead at Bokan, the company has crews investigating its Ray Mountains REE-tin property located roughly 110 miles (175 kilometers) northwest of Fairbanks.
This program included re-sampling and assay testing of key locations recently reported by the Alaska Geological Survey, and earlier U.S. Bureau of Mines work in the area.
Rare earths and associated metals such as tin have been identified in the alluvial outwash of the Ruby granitic batholith where the Ray Mountain claims are located.
The target metals are contained in heavy minerals such as monazite, xenotime, cassiterite, wolframite and zircon, which are widespread throughout the region.
When Ucore staked the Ray Mountain claims in 2011, it noted that the prospective heavy mineral placers found there can be effectively concentrated via conventional gravity separation and processing methods using only water as the separation medium.
The company also pointed out that the technology to process a monazite-xenotime placer concentrate for contained REEs has long been known elsewhere in the world and poses no new metallurgical challenges.
Cash and short-term deposits: C$8.5 million (June 30, 2014)
Working capital: C$8.7 million (June 30, 2014)
Market capitalization: C$50.4 million (Sept. 30, 2014)
210 Waterfront Drive, Suite 106
Bedford, Nova Scotia Canada B4A 0H3
Tel: 902-482-5214 Fax: 902-492-0197
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