Rare Element Resources
Bear Lodge Project
Canadian NI 43-101 Technical Report
October 9
th
, 2014
10135-200-46 – Rev. 0
1-15
agencies. The schedule, as distributed by the USFS in its scoping documents, calls
for completion of the draft EIS in the first quarter of 2015 and the final EIS by mid-
2015. The final Record of Decision (ROD) for the EIS, the decision document that
establishes the acceptable operating conditions, is expected in the fourth quarter of
2015.
The Company will need to obtain a mining permit from the Wyoming Department of
Environmental Quality – Land Quality Division. Additionally, the Company will need
various permits or approvals from a number of other federal, state, and local
agencies. The Company is pursuing those permits/approvals on a parallel path with
the work currently being done on the EIS, where possible.
1.11 Production Timeline
The Company will incorporate the results of the PFS, as well as Project engineering,
budgets, schedules, and other information into a Feasibility Study (FS), expected to
begin, pending board approval, before the end of the year. Given the anticipated
timing of the FS commencement, the Company could complete construction and
begin commissioning the Project as early as late 2016, subject to permitting,
financing, and other factors. The Company is reviewing all Project variables and
expects to have updates to the anticipated schedule for the Bear Lodge Project in the
fourth quarter of 2014.
1.12 Markets and Pricing
Because of their unique magnetic, catalytic and phosphorescent characteristics, rare
earths are expected to continue to be essential elements in the next generation of a
wide variety of technological advancements. Current projections from a variety of
leading industry analysts call for an average of 7% to 8% per annum growth in
demand from 2013 to 2020, with the fastest demand growth coming from magnet,
metal alloy and catalyst uses of rare earths. The Company anticipates that this
expected growth in demand, coupled with the factors listed below, will support a case
for higher rare earth prices, both in the near- and long-term:
Recent financial results from several of the six state-owned firms now consolidating
the rare earth industry in China have been poor, suggesting there may be some
pressure for these dominant producers to raise prices;
