Pele Mountain Resources has released an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Eco Ridge Mine Rare Earths and Uranium Project in Elliot Lake.
The updated PEA cites “significant gains” from the company's previous PEA, released in 2011, thanks to better rare earth recoveries, resulting in increased financial benefits.
The document calls for a 9,000-tonne-per-day operation, producing 97.2 million pounds of REO and 27.5 million pounds of uranium over 11 years. Over 11 years, the mine is expected to bring in a cumulative total revenue of $5.9 billion.
Additional mineral resources—a new hanging wall zone mineralization and extensions of the main conglomerate bed—have also been discovered.
Pele president and CEO Al Shefsky expressed optimism about the PEA.
“The implementation of an acid-baking circuit has a tremendous impact on our mineral recoveries and anticipated REO production, resulting in significantly improve financial and operational results relative to our 2011 PEA,” Shefsky said in the release. “Also, historically drilled deposit extensions and our recent discovery of substantial hanging wall zone mineralization above the main conglomerate bed have the potential to extend mine life by several years.”
Results in the PEA show that Pele “is one of the clear leaders in the ongoing race to develop new sources of critical rare earth outside of China,” he added.
Shefsky said Pele will now focus on moving into the feasibility and licensing stages as the company moves toward development and production.
www.pelemountain.com
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