" The samples were ground to 100% passing 270 mesh particles size to liberate the rare earth minerals from the host minerals. For each deposit type, a 10 kg sample of ground material was subjected to LIMS testing. The LIMS concentrates bear the strongly magnetic minerals in the samples including magnetite. A 200 g portion of LIMS non-magnetic material was then passed through a WHIMS at 5000, 10,000 and 15,000 Gauss field strength. Three concentrates were recovered per deposit type and these were combined and analyzed. The results are summarized in simplified tabular format below (Table 1).
The major findings are;
Rare earth elements were concentrated by WHIMS at ~80% overall recovery, yielding 3.91-5.5% TREO (including Y) grade. The mass of material reporting to the WHIMS concentrates ranged from 16-19% of the original material. This will dramatically reduce the material to be processed via the Direct Extraction Process. LIMS concentrates containing 92-98% Fe2O3 have been produced. These concentrates may be saleable as a by-product as an iron ore concentrate. The WHIMS non-magnetic product contains ~83-88% of the ZrO2 from the original mineral samples. This result is consistent with the Silver Fox testing reported in a News Release dated January 12, 2021. The deportment of ZrO2 to the WHIMS non-magnetic product allows the further opportunity to recover zirconium and hafnium by mineral separation (eg. flotation) processes."
"Greg Andrews, President/CEO states; “This test work demonstrates the potential to use LIMS and WHIMS to recover magnetite concentrate for potential sale and, most importantly, to recover a REE concentrate for processing to recover a high grade REE product for refining and separation. The treatment of a REE concentrate from any of our deposits would dramatically reduce the size of a Direct Extraction process plant for REE recovery. Similarly, the use of acids and bases and other reagents would be significantly reduced. Search Minerals has now confirmed that magnetic concentration can be applied to DEEP FOX, FORTROT AND FOX MEADOW mineralization. Search Minerals thanks ACOA and InnovateNL for their continued support received to undertake this study.”
From the Previous post by Chico:
"According to a 2016 preliminary economic assessment, a 1,000 metric ton per day operation at Foxtrot would produce 411 metric tons of neodymium and 142 metric tons praseodymium per year, along with various quantities of 13 other rare earth elements."
(Chart by Douginil!)
Price US$/Kg Shanghai Metal Markets Sep 2021 From: Vital Metals Presentation Oct 2021 ;p33
Light REEs La Lanthanum $ 1.35 Ce Cerium $ 1.41 Pr Praseodymium $ 102.32 ** Nd Neodymium $ 96.53 ** Sm Samarium $ 3.08 Eu Europium $ 30.12 Gd Gadolinium $ 39.54
Heavy REEs Tb Terbium $1,305.04 Dy Dysprosium $ 409.27 Ho Holmium $ 145.95 Er Erbium $ 31.74 Tm Thulium $ 20.85 Lu Lutetium $ 756.77 Yb Yttrium $ 6.56
(A metric ton, or tonne, is a unit of weight equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is commonly used in most countries, except the United States, where the short ton is used instead.)
Search's separation process results in a REE Concentrate subject to additional refining steps. Based on the prices shown above and the figures in Search' PEA, here is a POTENTIAL FINISHED sales price for the final processor of the Neodymium and Prasodymium:
411 metric tons Neodymium 411 m.t. x 1000 kg x $96.53 = $39,673,830 142 metric tons Prasodymium 142 m.t. x 1000 kg x $102.32 = $14,529,440 ------------ US $58,117,760
--------------------------------------------------------------------- **Note that the 2019 prices of the Target mineral Hafnium was about $1200 / kg. No annual recovery amount was provided by Search for Hafnium.
Hafnium - Properties - Price - Applications - Production [Search domain material-properties.org] https://material-properties.org › hafnium-properties-applications-price-production In 2019, prices of pure Hafnium were at around 1200 $/kg.
