Greate NEWS! - Quest Awarded $5M Grant From SDTCSustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC)
MONTRAL, QUBEC--(Marketwired - July 31, 2015) - Quest Rare Minerals Ltd. (TSX:QRM) (Quest) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $5 million grant from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to support Quest's operation of a large pilot plant to produce mixed rare earth metal oxides. The objective of the pilot plant project is to establish and confirm the process parameters and in particular Quest's Selective Thermal Sulphation (STS) process at scaled-up commercial production levels.
Quest has developed an industrial process that efficiently and cost effectively produces high purity mixed rare earth metal oxides from both mined ore from its Strange Lake property and phosphor powder recovered from fluorescent light bulbs, helping solve a major environmental problem for landfills.
The Quest project team will be supported by technical and engineering experts from SGS Canada Inc. and COREM, both world-leading organizations devoted to mineral processing, Helmholtz Institute Freiburg for Resource Technology of Germany and RediMet LLC.
Pierre Lortie, Quest's Executive Chairman stated "The SDTC financial support follows an extensive and rigorous evaluation of our eco-friendly STS process. Compared to alternative technologies, the superior efficiency of the STS process stems from the facts that it is (i) much simpler; (ii) it requires fewer reagents and lower reagent dosages; (iii) rare earth elements are separated from major contaminants (i.e. Fe, Al, Th, U); (iv) it minimizes process effluent and produces smaller quantities of inert residue; and (v) it entails lower capital and operating costs."
Rare earth metals are a key component of many cleantech technologies, including energy efficient electric motors, light-emitting diode (LED) lights and wind turbines. Rare earth metal oxides produced by Quest will be used in large part to meet the growing demand for more efficient permanent magnets.
The establishment of Quest's industrial STS processing plant in Bcancour, Qubec, will facilitate the creation of a new industry for Canada as well as open the opportunity to attract additional downstream businesses such as alloy and permanent magnet producers, as well as spark the development of R&D in rare earth processing and new applications at Canadian universities and research institutes.
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