REM acquires strategic interest in Lithium Project

RNS Number : 9996Q

Rare Earth Minerals PLC

23 June 2015

 



 23 June 2015

Rare Earth Minerals Plc.

("Rare Earth Minerals", "REM" or "the Company")

REM acquires strategic interest in significant European Lithium Project.

London listed Rare Earth Minerals Plc (AIM: REM), is pleased to announce that it has acquired a strategically significant 6.65% interest in one of the largest lithium deposits in Europe, the Cinovec deposit ("Cinovec") in the Czech Republic through a direct 6.65% holding in the share capital of European Metals Holdings Limited (ASX code: EMH) ("European Metals") that owns 100 per cent of the exploration rights to the Cinovec lithium/tin deposit.

REM acquired its 6.65% holding in European Metals at a cost of £200,000 via a placement of new ordinary shares by European Metals.

On 22 June 2015, European Metals has reported on the Australian Stock Exchange ("ASX") that the Cinovec deposit is a globally significant lithium and tin deposit with the potential to be a very low cost producer of lithium carbonate and reported the following key points about the Cinovec deposit

·     Lithium Inferred Mineral Resource of 514.8Mt @ 0.43% Li2O for 5.5Mt LCE;

·     Lithium Exploration Target 350Mt-450Mt @ 0.39-0.47% Li2O for 3.4Mt-5.3Mt LCE;

·     Tin Indicated Mineral Resource 7.0Mt @ 0.23% Sn, 0.03% W, 0.45% Li2O;

·     Tin Inferred Mineral Resource 72.7Mt @ 0.23% Sn, 0.03% W, 0.45% Li2O;

·     Total contained tin in Mineral Resources of 167kt.

For full details please refer to European Metal's releases to ASX. These can be found on its website: www.europeanmet.com.

David Lenigas, The Company's Chairman, commented;

"This investment is a strategic acquisition which provides REM exposure to a significant lithium deposit in the European Union ("EU").  The project abuts Germany, one of the largest potential consumers of lithium in the EU. REM's involvement in Cinovec will provide valuable financial horsepower to accelerate the assessment of this key EU lithium and tin resource and also provide European Metals with REM's technical expertise on resource commercialisation of a deposit of this nature."

For further information please contact: 

Rare Earth Minerals plc                                                                   [phone]

David Lenigas

Kiran Morzaria

WH Ireland Limited (NOMAD & Broker)                                        [phone]

James Joyce

Mark Leonard

Square1 Consulting

David Bick, Mark Longson                                                                  [phone]

Qualified Person:

Kiran Morzaria B.Eng. (ACSM), MBA, has reviewed and approved the information contained in this announcement. Kiran holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Industrial Geology) from the Camborne School of Mines and an MBA (Finance) from CASS Business School.

Further details on the Cinovec Project Overview as contained in its ASX release of 22 June 2015:

Cinovec Lithium/Tin Project:

European Metals owns 100% of the Exploration Rights to the Cinovec lithium/tin deposit in the Czech Republic. The Cinovec licence is defined on one side by the German border and is 35km south of the German city of Dresden.

Cinovec is an historic mine incorporating a significant undeveloped lithium/tin resource with by-product potential including tungsten, rubidium, scandium, niobium and tantalum.

Cinovec hosts a globally significant hard rock lithium deposit with a total Inferred Mineral Resource of 514.8Mt @ 0.43% Li2O. Within this resource lies one of the largest undeveloped tin deposits in the world, with total Inferred and Indicated Mineral Resources of 79.7Mt grading 0.23% Sn for 167,000 tonnes of contained tin.

The Mineral Resource estimates are based primarily on over 83,000 metres of drilling and 21.5 kilometres of underground exploration drifting.  The deposit has previously had over 400,000 tonnes trial mined as a sub-level open stope operation. A recently completed Scoping Study, conducted by specialist independent consultants, shows the deposit could be amenable to bulk underground mining.

Metallurgical test work, conducted by Strategic Metallurgy (for lithium) and ALS Labs (for tin), has produced both battery grade lithium carbonate and high-grade tin concentrate at high recoveries with the Scoping Study showing production costs of less than US$2,000 per tonne of lithium carbonate. This cost would decrease with tin and tungsten credits included.

Cinovec is very well serviced by infrastructure, with a sealed road adjacent to the deposit, rail lines located 5km north and 8km south of the deposit and an active 22kV transmission line running to the historic mine. As the deposit lies in an active mining region, it has strong community support.

COMPETENT PERSON:

Information in the 22 June 2015 ASX release that relates to exploration results is based on information compiled by European Metals Director Dr Pavel Reichl. Dr Reichl is a Certified Professional Geologist (certified by the American Institute of Professional Geologists), a member of the American Institute of Professional Geologists, a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists and is a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Minerals Resources and Ore Reserves. Dr Reichl consents to the inclusion in the release of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears. Dr Reichl holds CDIs in European Metals.

The information in this report that relates to Mineral Resources has been compiled by Mr Lynn Widenbar. Mr Widenbar, who is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, is a full time employee of Widenbar and Associates and produced the estimate based on data and geological information supplied by European Metals. Mr Widenbar has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity that he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Minerals Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr Widenbar consents to the inclusion in this report of the matters based on his information in the form and context that the information appears.

- Ends -

Glossary:

Exploration Target - estimate of the potential tonnage and grade of a deposit for which there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource

Indicated Mineral Resource - mineral resource classification for which tonnage and grade has been estimated with sufficient confidence to allow mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of a deposit

Inferred Mineral Resource - mineral resource classification for which tonnage and grade has been estimated with a relatively low level of confidence

JORC Code - a professional code of practice (the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resource and Ore Reserves) that sets minimum standards for public reporting of exploration results, mineral resources and ore reserves

km - kilometre/s, a unit of measure equal to one thousand metres

kt - kilotonne/s, a unit of weight or capacity equal to one thousand metric tonnes

kV - kilovolt/s, a unit of potential equal to one thousand volts

LCE - lithium carbonate equivalent, a common measure for reporting lithium production (LCE = Li2O% X 2.473)

Li - lithium

Li2O - lithium oxide

Mt - megatonne/s, a unit of weight or capacity equal to one million metric tonnes

Scoping Study - an order of magnitude technical and economic study of the potential viability of mineral resources

Sn - tin

sub-level open stope - underground mining method

t - tonne/s

W - tungsten

 

 

END

 

 

MSCEALKDAALSEFF