July 2013 Updates To The TMR Advanced Rare-Earth Projects Index

I recently updated the TMR Advanced Rare-Earth Projects Index, to reflect two new additions. The effective date of the update is August 23, 2013. The specifics:

• On July 29, 2013, Pacific Wildcat Resources Corp. (TSX.V:PAW) announced a maiden NI-43-101-compliant rare-earth mineral-resource estimate for the Mrima Hill project in Kenya. According to the associated press release, 48.7 Mt of the resource is at the Indicated level @ 4.40% TREO and 110.7 Mt is at the Inferred level @ 3.61% TREO, each at a cut-off grade of 1.0% TREO. The press release referred to a High-Grade Zone within the overall deposit, with 11.3 Mt of that portion of the resource at the Indicated level @ 6.94% TREO and 15.6 Mt at the Inferred level @ 7.12% TREO, each with a cut-off grade of 5.8%. Subtracting the High-Grade Zone from the overall resource estimate results in a Main Zone with 37.5 Mt at the Indicated level @ 3.65% TREO and 95.0 Mt at the Inferred level @ 3.03%, each at a cut-off of 1.0%.
• On July 30, 2013, Appia Energy Corp. announced an updated NI-43-101-compliant mineral-resource estimate for the Teasdale Zone of the Elliot Lake project in Canada. According to the associated news release (after conversion from REE to REO values), 13.1 Mt of the resource is at the Indicated level @ 0.20% TREO and 66.7 Mt 38.5 Mt is at the Inferred level @ 0.19% TREO, each at a cut-off value of $100 / t mineral resource. Although this is the first time that this project appears on the TMR Index, it did have a prior resource estimate that was published in 2011, but which was not known to TMR.

Also note that on August 6, 2013, Montero Mining and Exploration Ltd. (TSX.V:MON) announced a revised NI-43-101-compliant mineral-resource estimate for a portion of its Wigu Hill project in Tanzania. TMR is in communication with the company to obtain the additional information necessary to be able to break out this zone from the existing resource estimate, in a similar way to how the Mrima Hill project was delineated above. We expect to have that information by the next update and will provide further details at that time.

The Index currently consists of 55 rare-earth mineral resources, associated with 49 advanced rare-earth projects and 46 different companies, located in 33 different regions within 16 different countries.

I have also updated the pricing used in the Index data, to reflect the average monthly prices for July 2013. You can access the updated details via the Index page.

One final note – the easy-to-remember shortcut for accessing the Index is www.RareEarths.org.

Update – 09/06/13: The size of the Inferred mineral resource estimate for Appia Energy’s Elliot Lake Teasdale Zone project was incorrectly listed at 66.7 Mt – the actual estimate is 38.5 Mt. The Index has been updated accordingly.

Disclosure: at the time of writing, Gareth Hatch holds no shares or stock options in any of the companies mentioned in this article, or in any publicly traded rare-earth company, nor is he doing paid consulting for any such company.