Rare Element Resources Ltd. (
TSX: T.RES,
Stock Forum) shares rose 7.5% Tuesday amid reports that the company is working to develop the first rare earths mine to open in the United States for over 60 years.
Trading at $1.57, Rare Element has a market cap of $75 million, based on 47.7 million shares outstanding. The 52-week range is $3.60 and $1.24.
Rare Elements is working to advance the Bear Lodge project in northeastern Wyoming, on a site located 12 miles northwest of the town of Sundance.
The company said geological work in the past decade has outlined one of the largest disseminated rare earth deposits in North America.
Rare earth elements have applications that range from electronics and fiber optics to laser systems for health and defense as well as evolving green technologies, such as hybrid cars, solar panels and wind turbines.
As the dominant producer, China continues to control around 90% of the world’s rare earth supply.
Rare-earth elements are not rare, but it is unusual to find them in large enough quantities to make mining feasible.
The company has said 85% of project revenues are likely to come from “Critical Rare Earths,” those elements that are less common and higher valued with projected better demand growth and price support over the long term.
The deposit hosts a measured and indicated resource of 17.31 million tonnes, grading 3.11% total rare earth oxide (TREO) at a 1.5% cutoff grade.
That material includes two million tonnes of measured and 14.8 million tonnes of indicated resources.
In a bid to secure a mining permit, the company recently started to prepare the Evironmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Bear Lodge Pojrect, a move that involves public scoping meetings.
“The purpose of scoping is to identify the significant environmental issues that are then used to develop the alternatives to be analyzed in the EIS,’’ the company said recently.
A report in a local newspaper, the Rapid City Journal, said 140 people attended the first public meeting held by Black Hills National Forest to address the mine plan, which, if approved, would make it only the second rare earth mine ever developed in the U.S.
The Forest Service is accepting written comments from the public on the plan until April 30, 2014. Published reports say a draft environmental impact statement will be presented for public comment in the spring of 2015, with the final objection period in the winter of 2015.
A report in the Rapid City Journal said local landowners who attended the meeting on Monday had questions about water quality, dust control, and radioactive materials.
Many who spoke said they were not against the mine, but had concerns about safety.