Rare Element Resources
Bear Lodge Project
Canadian NI 43-101 Technical Report
October 9
th
, 2014
10135-200-46 - Rev. 0
17-50
17.9 Preliminary Design Basis
The purpose of the preliminary design basis is to establish the key design parameters
that are to be used for the next stages of project development.
Production Capacity
17.9.1
The mine production schedule was developed to feed about 179,000 stpy (500 stpd)
of upgraded mineral reserves (crushing/screening plus PUG beneficiation) to the
hydro-metallurgical plant through the first nine years of operation, after which the
plant would be expanded to accept nearly 216,000 stpy (600 stpd) of feed.
Physical Upgrade Plant
17.9.1.1
The PUG Plant has been designed to process 1,600 dry short tons (1,451 tonnes)
per day, (590,000 dry short tons per year) (535,000 dry tonnes per year) of run of
mine ore.
The Hydromet Plant is designed to process 591 dry short tons per day (216,000
dry short tons per year), (196,000 dry tonnes per year) of pre-concentrate and
produce between 7,000 & 10,000 tons per year (6,349 & 9,070 tonnes per year) of
high purity REO concentrates.
Product Specifications
17.9.2
Physical Upgrade Plant
17.9.2.1
The pre-concentrate produced by the PUG will have a Total Rare Earth Elements
(TREE) content of >3% to 17% with a moisture content of 16% on a dry weight
basis.
Feedstock
17.9.3
Physical Upgrade Plant
17.9.3.1
Run of Mine
The Physical Upgrade Plant has the ability for processing 1,600 dry short tons
(1,451 dry tonnes) per day of ore from the mine, depending on ore variability. Four
types of ore will be present: Bull Hill Oxide Carbonatite (OxCa), Bull Hill Oxide
(Ox), White Tail Oxide Carbonatite (OxCa) and White Tail Oxide (Ox). These ore
types are further classified as High Grade (HG), Mid-Grade (MG), and Low Grade
(LG).
