Rare Element Resources
Bear Lodge Project
Canadian NI 43-101 Technical Report
October 9
th
, 2014
10135-200-46 – Rev. 0
25-7
impact of the proposed mining activities on federal public lands. A Plan of Operations
was submitted to the United States Forest Service in 2012 and outlines the proposed
disturbance and impacts associated with the project. This plan was accepted as
complete in May 2013. While the Company is actively continuing to establish the
environmental baseline conditions, there is a risk that the final Record of Decision
(ROD) could be denied, contain conditions that would adversely affect the project
economics, or be challenged. The Company is developing extensive impact studies
and will establish the best available mitigation measures to meet regulatory agency
requirements.
25.7 Opportunities
The limits of the REE-mineralized system on the Bear Lodge property have yet to be
determined. The development of existing deposits outside of the Bull Hill mine area,
the identification of areas peripheral to the Bull Hill deposit that carry significant
enrichment in HREE, and excellent potential for the discovery of new REE exploration
target areas all add significant upside potential to the project. Oxidized equivalents of
carbonatite and carbonatite-related REE mineralization are widespread on the
property. Current data indicate that the area proximal to the Bull Hill and Whitetail
Ridge diatremes is likely to be the most prospective for the occurrence of significant
REE-mineralized bodies, including those with higher HREE enrichment. RE
mineralization of similar grade as the Bull Hill mine area is also found in targets
beyond the immediate vicinity of the two diatremes.
Although the resources falling in the inferred category were not used in the
preliminary feasibility study, they represent a significant opportunity for the project. As
reported in Table 14.34, the total Inferred resource is 46.0 million tons (41.7 million
tonnes) at an average grade of 2.53% TREO (1.5% cut off). Approximately 31.8
million tons (28.9 million tonnes) are high-grade oxide resources at a grade of 2.58%
TREO. Future drilling campaigns will focus on converting this inferred resource into
the measured and indicated categories, potentially extending the mine life, reducing
the stripping ratio, and/or providing expansion opportunity.
While an attractive and viable process has been developed for processing Bear
Lodge ore, further untested process improvement will be investigated that have the
potential to decrease reagent usage and resulting costs and improve product quality.
Recovery of by-products from the leach solution as well as sale of by-products that
will be generated in the Hydromet process also have the potential to improve project
economics.
