Search Minerals (TSXV:SMY) plans to be in production of Critical Rare Earths Elements (CREE) in three years, specifically permanent magnet REEs.
Focused on finding and developing CREE, Zirconium (Zr) and Hafnium (Hf) resources within southeast Labrador, SMY just released a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) with robust economics at its district scale Deep fox and Foxtrot resources.
Backed by proprietary tech for direct extraction, the company’s President and CEO, Greg Andrews, spoke with Sonia Madigan From the Floor at PDAC 2022 about his team’s next steps: processing 70 tonne bulk samples with goal of producing neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) metal. Search Minerals now has 20 tonnes of REE concentrate to run through proprietary tech and is well funded for flow though needs, eyes open for non-flow-through needs like environmental studies and demonstration plant funding. Its 14,000 m drilling program is ongoing, and the company just added 14 staff for resource work, with the expectation to drill another property in the late autumn season.
While China dominates the macro of the Rare Earths industry, decarbonization expected to increase demand for permanent magnet REEs moving from a US$15 billion per year to an US$60 billion market. The yearly deficit of supply is approximately 69,000 tonnes permanent magnet elements by 2025 and Search Minerals is producing more than than 1,400 tonnes of those elements per year as an end product ready for selling.
Calling this a generational play, CEO Andrews noted that there is a 26-year life of mine for this project between these two deposits. He is bullish on rare earth elements, given the electrification revolution taking place, and Search Minerals is out to supply this demand. Permanent magnet REEs go into traction motors for electric vehicles (EVs), a separate market from the battery supply chain, offering differentiated exposure.
