Way up north in Saskatchewan near an abandoned cluster of uranium mines, an exploration company is targeting rare earth mineral deposits.
The Alce Lake area could contain hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of these valuable rare earths.
Rare earths are actually common but rare earth deposits large enough to make mining them profitable are rare.
Rare earth minerals – stuff the public hears rarely about like lanthanum, yttrium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, to name some of the 17 varieties are crucial to technology in smart phones, electric vehicles, and green energy.
Demand for rare minerals will grow substantially. China produces 71 per cent of global production and owns a lot of the mines elsewhere around the globe.
The United States, seeing the impending shortage, has joined with Canada to reduce reliance on the Chinese supply.
The Alce Lake rare earths were first discovered in the 1950s when five uranium mines were built near Uranium City.
Over the years intermittent work on the Alce Lake property never went beyond some soil sampling and surveys, except for one small drilling project.
A Saskatchewan Geological Survey in 1975 found rare earths on the lake. Nothing more transpired until Appia Energy of Vancouver started poking around.
Appia hunts for uranium with some Athabasca Basin and Ontario properties and a management team with oodles of experience in finding uranium.
Prices for rare earth minerals range from $3 a pound to $50 a pound, making them really valuable.
Alce Lake trenching exposed ore with 8.9 per cent to 31.8 per cent total rare earths and two per cent to 7.3 per cent critical (read higher-priced) rare earth oxides.
Twelve of 15 Appia drill holes averaged just over 10 per cent total rare earths, still an impressive find
Before investors pile into this 29 cent stock, they ought to know a few drill holes on the 35,000 acre lease don’t make a viable deposit.
It will take years and millions to discover if there is a mineable deposit and outline the reserves, before trying to obtain permits for development.
A couple of hurdles may even hinder development of a viable deposit. Extracting multiple minerals economically from such ores can prove to be difficult.
Most rare earth mineral deposits contain small amounts of radioactive uranium and thorium. Alce Lake is no exception. Environmental authorities and the public want a safe disposal site for the waste before allowing a mine.
That Saskatchewan has rare earth minerals is no surprise. The Appian Energy situation reminds one of the Hoidas Lake rare earth deposits near the Alberta/North West Territories/Saskatchewan boundaries.
That deposit was found by Moose Jaw’s Todd Montgomery and led to formation of Great Western Gold/Minerals in 1997. Montgomery left the company a few years later over a dispute on the direction of operations.
In 2012, Great Western announced an indicated deposit of 32,000 tonnes and inferred deposit of 42,000 tonnes grading 14 per cent total rare earth oxides.
Great Western took on too many projects including development of a rare earth mine in South Africa and buying a British rare earths refinery.
In 2015 the company defaulted on a $90 million US convertible bond issue taken out to fund the South African mine.
The receiver, Price Waterhouse Cooper, got just over $5 million Canadian for all the assets.
Aptly named Mont Strategies Inc. bought Hoidas Lake for $20,024.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
