Ucore Rare Metals Inc (UURAF)

[farml1234]

News out and good !

Ucore Hosts RapidSX(TM) Demo Plant Tours and Updates on Successful REE Separation Commissioning Trials
V.UCU | 57 minutes ago
Ucore's Kingston, Ontario, RapidSX™ Rare Earth Element ("REE") Separation Demonstration Plant ("Demo Plant"):
hosted dozens of industry and government visitors for private tours and presentations in early March
has successfully achieved the first phase of extraction testing during its synthetic monazite commissioning trials
Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 16, 2023) - Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSXV: UCU) (OTCQX: UURAF) ("Ucore" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on activities at its RapidSX™ Demonstration Plant ("Demo Plant") for the separation of heavy and light rare earth elements ("REEs"). The Demo Plant is located within Ucore's RapidSX™ Commercialization and Demonstration Facility ("CDF") in Kingston, Ontario, and is run by its laboratory partner, Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc.("KPM").

Cannot view this image? Visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1119/158683_figure01.jpg

Figure 1 – The 52-Stage RapidSX™ REE Separation Demo Plant in Kingston, Ontario
Designed to Process HREE & LREE Feedstocks Derived from Bastnasite, Eudialyte, Ionic Clay, Monazite, Xenotime, and other Mineralization Sources. Plant presentations and tours below.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1119/158683_rapidsx_tour2.jpg

In early March, the Company hosted dozens of industry and government visitors for private tours and presentations at its CDF in Kingston, Ontario. The by-invite-only tours introduced and/or updated key existing and prospective strategic partners by demonstrating the operational advantages of Ucore's RapidSX™ 52-stage REE separation processing system. Ucore highlighted the uniqueness of being able to qualify original equipment manufacturers ("OEM") planned product requirements and outlined the next stages of commercial deployment activities made possible by the upscale design and function of the Demo Plant. Ucore is now executing a commercial deployment strategy of its RapidSX™ technology platform, which involves "copying and pasting" the current activities within the CDF to its first planned commercial scale REE separation and oxide production plant.

The Company, its engineering partner, Mech-Chem Associates, Inc. ("Mech-Chem"), and the scientific team at KPM are developing the full-scale engineering for the first Strategic Metals Complex ("SMC"). The SMC is a planned REE separation and rare earth oxide production plant slated to commence construction in the US State of Louisiana this year. It is scheduled to initially process 2,000 tonnes of total rare earth oxides ("TREO") by Q1-2025, increasing to 5,000 tonnes in 2026. Additionally, Ucore is investigating expanding the production throughput to 7,500 tpa of TREO by 2028 due to the specific characteristics of the soon-to-be-announced Louisiana SMC brownfield facility.

"Ucore recently had a tremendous opportunity to meet with and demonstrate our precise plan of establishing an independent REE supply chain to current and prospective industry and government partners at the CDF," stated Mike Schrider, P.E., Ucore's VP and COO. "We have assembled a remarkable team to develop the Demo Plant and, in parallel, the full-scale facility in Louisiana. The RapidSX™ technology platform assembly, commissioning, and demonstration process results learned in Kingston will continue to be directly applied to our planned Louisiana SMC and other planned SMCs – one of which is destined for Canada."

Concurrently, the Company has successfully completed the first phase of extraction circuit testing during its SX-1i synthetic monazite trials at the Demo Plant. SX-1 is designed to separate the heavy REE ("HREE") from the light REE ("LREE"); the results showed that the target separation was achieved and could be enhanced by further tuning of the operational parameters – which is the specific objective of the commissioning trials. Solvent extraction by RapidSX™ is highly effective, efficient, adaptable, and easy to implement in contrast to conventional mixer settlers.

Once commissioned, the Demo Plant is designed to demonstrate the techno-economic advantages, scale-up (currently projected at ˜6X), and commercial durability of the RapidSX™ technology platform. The Demo plant will process tens of tonnes of North American-friendly sources of mixed rare earth chemical concentrates over thousands of run-time hours in a simulated production environment. The planned output products are high-purity NdPr, praseodymium, neodymium, terbium, and dysprosium REEs, to be incorporated into the early stages of OEM qualification trials in Kingston coupled with demonstration and verification trials in Louisiana.

# # #jmho