HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA--(Marketwired - April 5, 2016) - Ucore Rare Metals, Inc. (TSX VENTURE:UCU)(OTCQX:UURAF) ("Ucore" or the "Company") is pleased to update on the commissioning of the SuperLig®-One rare earth element ("REE") separation pilot plant (the "Plant" or "SuperLig®-One"). The first tranche of pregnant leach solution ("PLS") derived from the Company's Bokan - Dotson Ridge ("Bokan") project in Alaska has been produced by SGS Lakefield Research Ltd of Lakefield, Ontario ("SGS") and delivered to IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc. of American Fork, Utah ("IBC"). The PLS has undergone confirmatory analysis and will be submitted to the Molecular Recognition Technology ("MRT") circuit.
Since the announcement of the completion of construction of SuperLig®-One (see Ucore Press Release dated March 7, 2016), a number of pre-PLS commissioning steps have been accomplished, as detailed below:
"The successful completion of initial stress testing and pre-PLS certifications for SuperLig®-One is exciting to say the least," said Jim McKenzie, President and CEO of Ucore. "Our objective now is the processing of the PLS at pilot scale, to be followed by early stage blueprinting of our progress from pilot to production scale without delay. Ucore has compressed the turnaround time for lab-scale to full-scale proof of concept to a fraction the time usually required of disruptive technology. A great deal of the credit for this goes to the fact that SuperLig® technology has been scaled many times before, separating multiple metals at major refineries the world over that process primary (mine) as well as secondary (recycled) materials. Our thanks to IBC for continuing the rapid pace of pre-production development."
The PLS phase of Plant commissioning, scheduled to commence this week, will consist of running the PLS sequentially through each unit operation to confirm the following functions:
Following confirmatory testing of each unit operation, the Plant will undergo a continuous run of PLS.
For further information on the SuperLig®-One Pilot Plant Mission Summary, please see the following link: http://ucore.com/SuperLig-One
For background on the traditional approaches to the separation of REE and the historical advance offered by MRT, please refer to the recently published White Paper on Separation of Rare Earth Elements, entitled "Molecular Recognition Technology: a Green Chemistry Process for Separation of Individual Rare Earth Metals", at the following link: http://ucore.com/documents/WhitePaper_REE_Separations.pdf
Steven R. Izatt, President and CEO of IBC, has approved the scientific and technical content of this news release and is the Qualified Person responsible for its accuracy. Mr. Izatt, Registered Member SME, holds a B.A. degree in Chemistry from Brigham Young University (BYU), as well as an M.S. in Chemical Engineering Practice and an M.S. in Technology and Policy, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Background
Ucore Rare Metals is a development-phase company focused on rare metals resources, extraction and beneficiation technologies with near term potential for production, growth and scalability. On March 3, 2015, Ucore announced the right to acquire a controlling ownership interest in the exclusive rights to IBC SuperLig® technology for rare earths and multi-metallic tailings processing applications in North America and associated world markets. The Company has a 100% ownership stake in the Bokan project. On March 31, 2014, Ucore announced the unanimous support of the Alaska State Legislature for the investment of up to USD $145 Million in the Bokan project at the discretion of the Alaska Import Development and Export Agency ("AIDEA").
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