Search Minerals Commissions Combined Foxtrot/Deep Fox Resource Preliminary Economic Assessment

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Search Minerals Inc. (TSXV: SMY | OTCQB: SHCMF) (“Search” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has commissioned a Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA 2022”) report on the combined Deep Fox/Fox Trot project with a target date of completion of Q1 2022.

The completion of an updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource estimates for Deep Fox and Foxtrot and completion of PEA 2022 are important next steps as the Company accelerates its “Sprint to Production”. The PEA 2022 will also provide our environmental consultants the essential information required to update and submit the new plan for the Environmental Impact Statement. We have been completing some baseline studies this year, which will form part of our submission.

The PEA 2022 will benefit from the following improvements.

1) Increased Material from Deep Fox Resource

• PEA 2022 will incorporate the results of the 7000 m drilling program completed at Deep Fox in 2021.
• The combination of the Deep Fox and Foxtrot resources will potentially allow for an increase in production rate to 2,000 tonnes per day compared to the 2016 PEA (PEA 2016) on Foxtrot alone.
• Assays from Deep Fox have shown higher grades of the key rare earth elements used in the permanent magnet market (Neodymium, Praseodymium, Dysprosium and Terbium) as compared to Foxtrot.

2) Metallurgical Process Optimization

• The optimization of the Direct Extraction Process in two pilot plant programs has resulted in increased recoveries on our key elements (Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb).
• The introduction of magnetic separation into the mineral processing flowsheet will:
  

(1) produce an iron ore concentrate by-product,
(2) concentrate the rare earths in 15-27% of the ore mass, resulting in a smaller extraction plant and,
(3) open the possibility of making a zirconium/hafnium by-product.

• Produce a mixed rare earth carbonate to supply the separation facility.
• New grinding and magnetic beneficiation added to the flowsheet to optimize capital and operating costs.

3) Rare Earth Element Price Increases

• Rare earth prices have increased significantly over the past year, and the upward trending price escalations are expected to continue.
• Current and future price projections (Adamas Intelligence) will form the basis for the PEA economic analysis.
  

Greg Andrews, President/CEO stated: “We are focused on delivering PEA 2022. Our exploration and metallurgical teams have made significant advances since PEA 2016 and we are excited to capture these benefits in our new economic evaluation. We are expecting a significant increase in the annual gross revenue, with the potentially increased production rate, higher grades and improved recovery rates from our patented Direct Extraction technology. We continue to optimize our processing flowsheet with magnetic concentration of rare earth minerals providing a reduced feed stream to our Direct Extraction process. As a result of the smaller treatment rate of the concentrate, we are anticipating capital and operating cost reductions with the new flowsheet.”