Texas Mineral Resources Signs MOU With Pennsylvania Coal Company to Recover and Produce Scandium and Rare Earth Byproducts From Coal Ash and Coal Overburden - Seite 2

Additionally, the coal company has a large database of drill hole and outcrop sampling that indicates potential for extensive rare earth and scandium value in the rocks overlying the unmined coal. Research conducted on overburden from other properties in the region and published by a group from Pennsylvania State University*, suggests that the rock (overburden) can be successfully leached with several different organic solvents with encouraging recoveries. The drill and outcrop data suggest that the in-situ overburden rock contains higher scandium values than the coal ash, thus offsetting the potentially higher costs of mining, crushing and grinding it.

"While our Round Top deposit remains the flagship property of the company, we are very pleased to be able to start parallel examination of a series of deposits, potentially profitable at current scandium prices, that offer the possibility of being brought to production more rapidly and at a fraction of the cost of Round Top. A significant portion of the process development work we plan to undertake for the coal related deposits will be applicable to feasibility work required by Round Top," Dan Gorski, CEO, added.

Anthony Marchese, Chairman, further commented: "Worldwide scandium production is limited and industry demand is growing. Domestic manufacturers need a large and reliable source of scandium oxide. We believe joining forces with a well-established Pennsylvania coal company for the potential recovery of scandium and other valuable rare earth minerals is a perfect complement to our Round Top heavy rare earth project. The potential benefits of such a project will be felt in the surrounding coal community as well as by TMRC shareholders. In recognition of the potential significance of a long-term domestic source of scandium oxide we plan to establish a new subsidiary titled Scandium America Corp upon the signing of a definitive agreement with the domestic coal company, at which time further details of the Agreement will be released."

*Separation of Rare Earth Elements From Coal and Coal Products, Final Report, Prepared for Leonardo Technologies Inc., Pittsburgh, PA., by Nari Soundarrajan, Nuerxida Pulati, Mark Klima, Mku Ityokumbul, and Sarma V. Pisupati, EMS Energy Institute and John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 5/7/2015.