American Rare Earths Reports Positive Metallurgical Test Results

PHOENIX, June 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- American Rare Earths (ASX: ARR | OTCQB: ARRNF | FSE:1BHA) (ARR or the Company) is pleased to report on the latest in a series of metallurgical tests on ore from its Halleck Creek project in Wyoming. With a JORC Resource of 1.43 billion tonnes the Halleck Creek project is potentially the largest rare earth project in the United States. The metallurgy test work continues to pave the way for low-cost processing using conventional technology.

Highlights

• The latest test work supports previous results showing a simple process flow sheet to produce a rare earth concentrate and maximize the recovery of magnet metals Neodymium and Praseodymium (NdPr).
• Bulk rougher/scavenger (primary) Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separation (WHIMS) produced 72% recovery and rejected 77% of feed mass, an upgrade ratio of 3.1.
• Further testing will commence in the coming weeks to generate the final concentrate for refinery testing.
• Current internal studies focus on annualized ore processing rates of 10, 15 and 20 million tonnes per annum feed rate to the concentrator to establish optimal project economics.
• This equates to a modelled production of 3,800 tonnes, 5,700 tonnes and 7,600 tonnes, respectively of the highly valuable NdPr oxides contained in Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate (MREC) as a saleable product to be processed within the USA.
  

Recent tests rejected a highly encouraging 77% of waste material in the early processing stages prior to the flotation circuit, demonstrating potential opportunities to reduce the project's operating and capital costs. This is a 5% improvement from preliminary test work results announced in December 2022. These promising results are further enhanced by the low levels of penalty elements thorium and uranium, which remain well below regulatory standards.

CEO and Managing Director, Mr. Chris Gibbs, commented:

“Rare earth projects typically have complex metallurgy. Under the technical leadership of Wood PLC, these outstanding test results provide confidence for a simple process flow sheet. Halleck Creek ore continues to pass all the key tests from a processing perspective: good recovery using conventional processing methods, low radioactive penalty elements and the ability to produce a mixed rare earth concentrate product.”