Geomega Provides Update on Demo Plant, Project Design Change and Start of Site Preparation Activities at Saint-Hubert Facility

MONTREAL, March 19, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Geomega Resources Inc. (“Geomega” or the “Corporation”) (TSX.V: GMA) (OTC: GOMRF), a developer of clean technologies for the mining, refining, and recycling of rare earths and other critical materials, is pleased to provide an update to shareholders on its rare earths recycling demonstration plant, including certain required project design modifications, and an update on site preparation activities that have started at the Saint-Hubert facility.

Project engineering update
The past 6 months have been dedicated to bringing engineering to a sufficient level of completion that it could be tendered to the construction contractors for execution and completion of the rare earths recycling demonstration project. Procurement also progressed and various items were ordered while others were received at the Saint-Hubert facility during this period. In parallel, permitting activities have been ongoing at both the municipal and provincial levels. The objective was to be able to start the construction activities in February 2024. As a result of providing all the requested data to the governmental authorities, Geomega was notified by the municipality of Saint-Hubert, a borough within the city of Longueuil, that the sewer system capacity is not currently able to accommodate the water discharges from the cooling tower that was to be installed for the demonstration plant (please see September 20, 2023 press release for the 3D model of the originally intended layout of the plant and cooling tower). Various solutions have been evaluated by Geomega, including in collaboration with city engineers, however none were appropriate for the project due to resulting increased costs, additional unforeseeable delays, and the overall feasibility of the proposed solution. As a result, Geomega had to undertake a design change for the rare earths recycling demonstration plant.

Project design change from batch to continuous
Geomega’s engineering team has begun a design change for the rare earths recycling demonstration plant from a batch process to a continuous 24hrs operation with smaller equipment and lower demand for utilities, most importantly in regard to the cooling requirements (chillers with a closed loop operation instead of a cooling tower with regular water discharges into the municipal sewer system). Despite the design change, the demonstration plant throughput capacity is planned to remain unchanged at 1.5 tonnes of feed material per day.