-Tetra Tech has Been Contracted to Complete a Resource Evaluation on the Main Zone
THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - July 19, 2011) - Rare Earth Metals Inc. ("Rare Earth Metals", "RA" or the "Company") (News - Market indicators)(OTCQX:RAREF)(PINK SHEETS:RAREF) is pleased to report that Wardrop, a Tetra Tech Company (Tetra Tech) has been contracted to undertake a resource evaluation of the Clay-Howells Main Deposit. The resource calculation is expected to be completed by the end of August and the expected completion date of the report is early September. Additionally, Jack Lifton recently completed a field visit to the project and provided an assessment of the deposit potential regarding the synergies of producing a magnetite concentrate with a Rare Earth Element (REE) and Niobium (Nb) by-product. It should be noted that only limited mineralogy and metallurgical assessment has been carried out to date and detailed work would be needed to understand how well the various commodities could be separated.
The Clay-Howells project is located 45 kilometers north-northeast of Kapuskasing, Ontario. The property is accessible by existing forest roads leading north from the mill town of Kapuskasing, where infrastructure including highway, railroad, pipelines and airports are readily available. Intersections from drilling in January to March, 2010 had confirmed that the Clay-Howells Iron – REE – Nb deposit is host to a 50 to 100 meter thick massive to banded magnetite unit with significant REE and Niobium mineralization. Drill results from an 18 hole program carried out in 2010 included intersections up to 0.69% TREO, 0.14% Nb205, 57.8% Fe203 over 105.3 meters which included a higher grade section of 1.088% TREO, 0.14% Nb205 and 65.95% Fe203 over 16.9 meters. (See press releases for February, March, and April, 2010).
Jack Lifton, who is a well respected expert on REE economics and an advisor to the Company, recently visited the Clay-Howells site and offered the following comments: "The Clay-Howells' deposit represents an excellent opportunity to develop a "polymetallic boutique" operation in which one or more valuable products are able to subsidize the cost of others making the combination of them into a profit-making mining operation. I consider Clay-Howells to be a magnetite mine with rare earth and niobium by-products. This means that the preparation and beneficiation of the magnetite will naturally separate it from the rare earths and niobium. The prepared magnetite at that stage will then be saleable at a profit to the thermal coal washing industry (as "heavy media"). The residue from this first stage operation can now be classed as a rare earths/niobium concentrate. This concentrate can be processed by known metallurgical techniques to separate the rare earths, as a group, and the niobium. Both of these "by-products" of the magnetite beneficiation have significant value at this stage. Since I believe that the value of the magnetite produced could cover all of the costs of the operation this means that the rare earths and the niobium "concentrates" both can be sold into the market competitively and add value directly to the bottom line of the Clay-Howells operation. In this manner a polymetallic boutique operation does away with the issues of the size and grade of the original ore body considered only as a rare earths' deposit. A mining operation economically and physically similar to the one I am proposing for Clay-Howells, a polymetallic boutique, is well into development (it is producing magnetite) in Turkey and will soon come to the European market (where demand for all of its products exceeds supply) as a supplier of magnetite heavy media for thermal coal washing and a producer of concentrates of titanium, zirconium, and rare earths. The combination of Clay-Howells' minerology, its potential as well as actual infrastructure in place, and of well known metallurgical techniques makes this deposit an excellent candidate to be rapidly developed into a polymetallic boutique capable of producing rare earth concentrates competitively with "anyone" anywhere."
Commented Michael Stares, President of Rare Earth Metals, "We are very pleased with Mr. Lifton's assessment of the project and that Tetra Tech has taken on the task to give us a better understanding of how many tonnes of the magnetite iron, rare earths and niobium the Clay-Howells property holds. We continue to believe that Clay-Howells holds great value as a specialized iron deposit with much of the value coming from the Rare Earth Elements and Niobium as by-products. The Company will continue to seek business opportunities for the various components of the deposit and the Tetra Tech report, once received, will help us to evaluate this in more detail."
Wayne Reid, PGeo, is a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the technical information forming the basis for release.
About Rare Earth Metals Inc.
Rare Earth Metals is a well funded company with a focus on exploring for Rare Earth Element deposits. The Company's shares are listed on the TSX-V exchange under the symbol RA and the OTCQX exchange under the symbol RAREF. The Company presently has two advanced projects in Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, both exhibiting multi element potential (REEs, Niobium, Beryllium, Zirconium and Iron Ore) and proximity to available infrastructure. Its flagship properties are the Clay-Howells Prospect and the Red Wine Project. The Company has recently acquired additional properties in the Coldwell Complex near Marathon, Ontario and the Lavergne-Springer REE Prospect near Sturgeon Falls, Ontario. Additional information concerning the Company is contained in documents filed by the Company with securities regulators, available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. For more information please visit the Rare Earth Metals web site at www.rareearthmetals.ca.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF RARE EARTH METALS INC.
Michael Stares, President and CEO
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future production, reserve potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that the Company expects are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and those actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, Investors should review the Company's filings that are available at www.sedar.com.
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