Media alert – “Defense Metals Corp. (TSXV: $DEFN.V) (OTCQB: $DFMTF) is
taking a number of steps to advance its 100%-optioned Wicheeda Light #RareEarths
Elements (LREE) property in BC” @DefenseMetals
Vancouver, British
Columbia – April 27, 2021 - Investorideas.com Newswire –Media alert for Defense Metals Corp. ( TSX-V: DEFN / OTCQB: DFMTF /
FSE: 35D). The company was featured in the following article: “Chinese demand to fuel Rare Earths market demand for years to come.”
Read this alert featuring DEFN in full at https://www.investorideas.com/news/2021/mining/04271DEFN-Wicheeda-Light-BC.asp
Full article link
https://resourceworld.com/?p=64289&preview=1&_ppp=af1c509aed
By David Duval
Excerpt
Few industrial commodities have the exotic
appeal of Rare Earth Elements (REEs), a group of 17 elements referred to as the
lanthanide series in the periodic table of elements. They are widely used in a
variety of industrial applications, with the manufacturing of permanent magnets
representing the single largest and most important end use for REEs. This
market segment alone accounts for 38% of total forecasted demand.
A recent report in the Financial
Times alleged that China is considering the placement of
export controls on REEs in order to damage U.S. industry and more specifically
defense production. Perhaps with this threat in mind, during the last days of
the Trump administration over US$800 million was allocated for REE
and strategic minerals research in a pandemic stimulus package.
Defense Metals Corp. ( TSX-V: DEFN / OTCQB: DFMTF /
FSE: 35D) is taking a number of steps to
advance its 100%-optioned Wicheeda Light Rare Earths Elements (LREE) property
in British Columbia.
Rare earth elements are a group of 15
elements with tongue-twisting names like praseodymium, neodymium, terbium and
dysprosium, and which are vital to green technology and high-tech applications.
They fall into two sub-groups: light and heavy, with the heavies being more
scarce.
Since the U.S. relies on China, the
dominant global supplier, for about 80% of its rare earths imports, security of
supply became an issue at the beginning of the last decade when China imposed
export restrictions, a move that sparked renewed investor interest in the
sector.
China has dominated the rare earths
industry for 30 years and there is little indication that this will change any
time soon, industry officials say. Now, with a dramatic increase in demand for
rare earth magnets needed to drive electric transportation and produce clean
energy solutions, the industrial world remains exposed to Chinese dominance.
It means there is a big opportunity
for a company like Defense Metals. Its key asset is the 1,708-hectare Wicheeda
Light Rare Earth Element Property located approximately 80 kilometres northeast
of Prince George, B.C. The property is accessible by all-weather gravel roads
and is near infrastructure, including power transmission lines, the CN railway
and major highways.
Favourable mineralogy and lanthanide
distribution make Wicheeda a very attractive LREE deposit, the company has
said. Two specific rare earth minerals Monzanite and
Synchysite/Parasite-Bastanaesite are present in equal proportions.
The project hosts an indicated
mineral resource of 4.89 million tonnes averaging 3.02% LREO (Light Rare Earth
Oxide) and an inferred mineral resource of 12.1 million tonnes averaging 2.9%
LREO. The 2020 estimate marks a 40% increase in overall tonnage and 30%
increase in the overall average grade compared to the 2019 maiden resource
estimate. The company is targeting a potential +15-year mine life at a 2.0
million tonne/year throughput.
Meanwhile, Defense Metals is working
in parallel on all facets of project development including baseline
environmental, pilot-scale metallurgical studies; in addition to economic
modelling and scenario analysis as it moves towards completion of a preliminary
economic assessment (PEA) during 2021.
Defense Metals has engaged SRK
Consulting (Canada) Inc. to conduct an economic scenario analysis of its
Wicheeda Project that will facilitate decision making related to performing a
PEA. The scenario analysis will evaluate the potential of multiple mine
development scenarios through the completion of economic trade-off studies,
which, subject to results, will form the basis for the PEA.
Positive flotation and
hydrometallurgical test work achieved a high-grade 50% LREO concentrate at
above 85% recovery. Hydrometallurgical test work demonstrated 90% REE
extraction with opportunities for further improvement.
Defense Metals recently commissioned
the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) to complete an X-Ray Transmission (XRT)
sorting amenability study on Wicheeda REE mineralization.
The move comes after Defense Metals
and SRC were awarded National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research
Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) funding, a Government of Canada funded program
mandated to provide financial support for technology innovation.
Funding awarded under the NRC IRAP
will cover approximately 70% of the estimated cost of the XRT amenability study
test-work, the company said.
The objective of the SRC amenability
study is to investigate XRT sorting for the purpose of upgrading Wicheeda REE
mineralization prior to downstream processing. Sensor-based sorting has several
advantages when applied to REE mining projects in that beneficiation occurs
without water and with reduced grinding requirements. (Beneficiation is any
process that improves (benefits) the economic value of the ore by removing
gangue minerals (unmineralized waste).
The investigation will assess how
much gangue can be removed from the head feed.
It will also carry out an iterative
study of different sorting sizes to process in the XRT sorter assessing both
the grade of the upgraded concentrate and the grade of waste for economic
studies whereby the optimum operational parameters can be determined.
XRT sorting has the potential to
realize several significant project benefits, including:
·
Relatively low-cost gangue
(unmineralized waste) removal and volume reduction at the front-end of the
Wicheeda REE processing stream.
·
Potential to have a significant
positive benefit on downstream flotation and hydrometallurgical processes via
reduced water, heating and reagent consumption costs.
·
Depending on the success of the test-work,
these reductions may contribute to overall lower size/ throughput and capital
cost of potential future commercial REE concentration and refining facilities
at Wicheeda.
“Defense Metals looks forward to
investigating the potential of low-cost front-end upgrading of Wicheeda REE
mineralization via XRT sorting,” said Defense Metals CEO Craig Taylor. “We are
working on a PEA, looking forward to another exciting drill program, more
environmental work and possibly a PFS by year end.”
The company was notified by its
Asia-based adviser, Golden Dragon Capital Ltd., that it has received requests
from two leading global REE smelting and separator enterprises to provide
samples of Wicheeda REE mineral concentrate for evaluation prior to
negotiations of an initial memorandum of understanding (MOU) and subsequent
potential mineral concentrate offtake agreements. These requests are the third
and fourth REE concentrate evaluation requests received to date, and
discussions are currently continuing with several other parties.
Defense Metals recently received the
formal Wicheeda rare earth element (REE) project continuous hydrometallurgical
pilot plant proposal from SGS Canada Inc. The company’s successful 26-tonne
flotation pilot plant campaign, also completed at the SGS Lakefield, Ontario
metallurgical test facility, yielded approximately 1,200 kilograms of
high-grade REE mineral concentrate. Initiation of the hydrometallurgical pilot
plant test program is the next step in establishing overall flowsheet
operability at scale.
These developments are part of a plan
to advance Wicheeda along the road to production. The Wicheeda deposit hosts
neodymium and praseodymium LREEs and Defense Metals is positioning itself to
meet the growing demand for these North American-sourced Light Rare Earth
Elements.
On April 23, 2021, Defense Metals
shares were trading at .415 cents in a 52-week range of 75 cents and $0.115,
leaving the company with a market cap of $26.7 million based on 64,440,000
shares outstanding.
About
Defense
Metals Corp. https://defensemetals.com/
Defense Metals Corp. is a mineral exploration
company focused on the acquisition of mineral deposits containing metals and elements commonly
used in the electric power market, military, national security and the
production of “GREEN” energy technologies, such as, high strength alloys and
rare earth magnets. Defense Metals has an option to acquire 100% of the 1,708
hectare Wicheeda Rare Earth Element Property located near Prince George,
British Columbia, Canada. Defense
Metals Corp. trades in Canada under the symbol “DEFN” on the TSX Venture
Exchange, in the United States, under “DFMTF” on the OTCQB and in Germany on
the Frankfurt Exchange under “35D”.
For further
information, please contact:
Todd Hanas, Bluesky Corporate Communications Ltd.
Vice President, Investor Relations
Tel: (778) 994 8072
Email: todd@blueskycorp.ca
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