American Rare Earths has drill spinning at La Paz Scandium and Rare Earths Project in US

American Rare Earths Ltd’s (ASX:ARR) (FRA:1BHA) wholly-owned US subsidiary Western Rare Earths (WRE) has started drilling at the La Paz Rare Earths Project in Arizona, USA. WRE was able to commence drilling immediately due to the preparation by world-class drilling team Timberline Driller of drill pads and access roads while awaiting final permits.  The La Paz Project presents a unique opportunity in this mining-friendly jurisdiction as a low-grade critical mineral target with the advantage of its sheer volume, and possible opportunity for simple concentration via magnetics, ultra-low penalty element content (Thorium <7 parts per million), and low cost of open-pit production.  First drilling in nine years  This is the first drilling at the project since 2012, with the maiden resource established by the previous owners in 2011 via 195 extremely shallow percussion holes drilled down to 30 metres.  In 2020, this data was reviewed to confirm the previous defined resource, allowing ARR to announce the first formal JORC 2012 classified resource estimate of 128.2 million tonnes at 373.4 parts per million (0.037%) Total Rare Earth Elements (TREE). A few deeper core holes were drilled in the resource area in 2012, which has provided useful guidance for the potential opportunities in the 2021 drill campaign.  La Paz drill hole locations.  Exempted from moratorium  In addition, the project has the advantage of being in a Fraser Institute global Top 2 mining-friendly jurisdiction and is one of the very few mining asset classes referenced favourably by the Biden Administration.  On the day of the inauguration of US President Joe Biden, the new Acting Secretary of the Interior called for a 60-day halt on grounding disturbing activity approvals on federal lands – which created some confusion within the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) around ongoing processing of the permit applications for the La Paz Project drilling campaign.  After internal deliberations by the relevant government agencies and inquiries by elected officials on behalf of WRE, the BLM permit application quickly received approval.  This occurred while developers in the fossil fuel industry remain held up on ground-disturbing activity approvals due to the moratorium by the new administration.  Increasing resource size and grade  The company is focused on drilling deeper as it explores the opportunity to increase the resource size and average grade.  A detailed review of the previous drilling at different elevations indicates the opportunity to increase the resource by deeper drilling in the lower plate, where higher grade rare earths are prevalent.  This analysis supports the company’s plan for a core drilling campaign to 61-metre depths. Advanced metallurgical study  Around 500 kilograms of targeted core material will be forwarded to a world-class rare earths metallurgy lab for advanced metallurgy work which will establish a flowsheet that will be at the core of the Preliminary Economic Assessment the company expects to publish in late 2021. As pregnant leachate solution is produced in this process, new ultra-high efficiency processing technologies will also be evaluated. The company is encouraged by the peer-reviewed, published research data that shows concurrent production of scandium oxide and all of the lanthanide rare earths at 96% and 99% efficiency respectively - such as the Lanmodulin technology originating from Penn State University and being developed by Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL).  ARR has reported its commitment to provide LLNL with feedstock for advanced research in support of the lab’s application for technology commercialisation funding from the US Department of Energy.  This would result in published processing efficiency data specific to the feedstock from the La Paz Project and the company’s Laramie REE Project.  La Paz Rare Earths Project JORC 2012 classified mineral resource estimate. High-efficiency separation technologies In addition, the company is evaluating a number of other promising new high-efficiency separation technologies.  Researchers working on multiple emerging technologies have expressed interest in the company’s feedstocks due to ultra-low thorium content which is unique among US hard rock REE mining projects.  As a result, the company expects to benefit from low or no cost evaluation of these technologies in the coming months.  Deeper exploration opportunity  Upon close evaluation of all available data, the company has established a clear opportunity has emerged for cost-effective, targeted expansion of the resource.  This drill campaign will have the opportunity to follow the geology deeper than the initially planned 61 metres depth, better define the ore body and potentially expand the resource.  The plan for nine drill holes, down to a minimum depth of 61 metres each, is 50% more than the six holes originally announced by the company, with this expanded campaign allows for reconnaissance at depth in the new project areas southwest of the maiden resource.  This may indicate the possibility that the ore body extends 5 kilometres or more as indicated by robust surface sample results similar to those in the maiden resource area.  Potential scandium opportunity  Notably, scandium values tend to be high also in areas of high parts per million TREE, so the drilling will also likely identify a scandium resource greater than 11 ppm. The company intends to utilise the core drill assay results from this campaign to determine if a maiden resource of scandium can be established, concomitant and additional to the rare earths resource estimate. Developing a new scandium resource estimate in the US is especially attractive to the company because domestically, scandium was neither mined nor recovered from process streams or mine tailings in 2020 and there is limited capacity to produce ingot and distilled scandium metal at existing facilities. Additionally, scandium, along with rare earths, was identified by the US Government on its Final List of Critical Minerals pursuant to a 2017 Presidential Executive Order, which targets mineral commodities that are vital to the nation's security and economic prosperity.