Ucore Commences Phase II of Oils Sands Project

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA--(Marketwired - March 6, 2017) - Ucore Rare Metals, Inc. (TSX VENTURE:UCU)(OTCQX:UURAF) ("Ucore" or the "Company") is pleased to report on its joint efforts to monetize rare earth elements and constituent metals from the Alberta oil sands. In 2016, the Company announced that it has partnered with a Major Alberta Oil Sands Producer ("MOSP") in the undertaking, which has received funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program ("NRC-IRAP") (see Ucore Press Release dated July 18, 2016).

Phase I of the development agenda, now successfully completed, has included initial flow-sheet design work, beginning with input material from a froth treatment plant located at Fort McMurray, AB. Representative samples comprising a tailing slurry and containing REE, Ti, and a range of other valuable metals, were then obtained from the MOSP process flow. Also during Phase I, a Pregnant Leach Solution ("PLS") formulation process was designed by Edwin Bentzen, BSc. of Bentzen & Assoc. of Arvada, CO (the "Bentzen Process"). The Bentzen Process, proprietary to Ucore, has been designed specifically to modify the bitumen PLS for submission to Molecular Recognition Technology (MRT) metals separation.

During Phase II of the development agenda, Ucore has selected Resource Development Inc. (RDi) of Wheat Ridge, Colorado USA, to perform the PLS preparatory work. The output of the RDi initiative will be shipped to IBC Advanced Technologies ("IBC") of American Fork, Utah, for bench scale separation trials. Pending successful completion of bench scale tests, the Company intends to utilize its SuperLig®-One Pilot Plant Facility to test the process on a greater scale.

"The range of metals resident in the Fort McMurray tailing management sites and the ongoing process flow are considerable," said Jim McKenzie, President and CEO of Ucore. "Accessing this locked in non-petroleum value is a priority for the oil sands industry, and processors are looking to derive pre-existing value from the bitumen froth process. With a range of SuperLig® products already developed and cataloged, our objective is to apply this technology not just to REE and titanium, but a variety of other metals of potential value."