Commerce Resources Corp. Announces Participation in Eco-Friendly Flotation Collector Research

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2021 / Commerce Resources Corp. (TSXV:CCE)(FSE:D7H0)(OTCQX:CMRZF) (the "Company" or "Commerce") is pleased to announce that it will be providing in-kind support for an academic project involving the research and development of ecologically friendly flotation collector reagents. Specifically, the Company will contribute Ashram Deposit material, collected from the 2012 bulk sample, to support the study.

The initial objective of the project, named SideroFlot, was to develop a bio-based process for removing iron-containing impurities (e.g. iron oxides and sulfides) from industrial minerals such as clays, kaolin, and quartz sands. However, the program has since been expanded to the beneficiation of rare earth minerals and identification of flotation collectors that are both effective as well as biodegradable and ecologically sustainable.

The process is based on the use of microbial complexing agents (amphiphilic siderophores) for selective binding, modification of, and separation of the iron particles in an environmentally friendly, wet processing procedure. The amphiphilic siderophores "Marinobactin", which are formed by the microorganism Marinobacter, are used as agents for the hydrophobisation (i.e. process of making particles repel water) of the iron minerals. In the current project, the performance of Marinobactin siderophore (a hydroxamate) will be evaluated as a sustainable and biodegradable collector for flotation of REE-minerals - monazite, bastnaesite and xenotime - from a carbonatite matrix.

The SideroFlot Project is being carried-out by Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), a non-profit research organization and member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers, Germany's largest scientific organization with a 3-billion-euro annual budget. The HZDR conducts research on three areas of focus - materials, health, and energy with the long-term overarching objective of addressing some of society's larger challenges. The project is being assisted by Gerhard Merker, a Mineral Process Engineer who helped with the development of the Ashram Deposit flowsheet (see news release dated August 13 and December 4, 2013)