Pele’s ‘compelling’ rare earth recycling opportunity

United States – Pele Mountain Resources Inc. has implemented a monazite recycling strategy to ‘kick-start the sustainable development of a low-cost, early-to-market, Canadian-based rare earth supply chain’€™ near Elliot Lake, Ontario.

Pele intends to source monazite from mineral sand mine tailings in countries that embrace sustainable mining practices and are allied trading partners with Canada. The objective is to recycle the monazite to produce mixed rare earth concentrates that will be separated into ′high-purity, individual rare earth oxides′ that can be used in downstream value-added processing and manufacturing.

The recycling strategy involves close collaboration with industry leaders in the rare earth supply chain and, among others, all levels of government as well as academia. ′Our recycling strategy represents a transition, not into an entirely new field but rather in pursuit of our same goal by different means,′ comments Pele′s president Al Shefsky.

′Despite increasing demand for certain rare earths and billions of dollars invested to develop mining operations and processing facilities, we are not aware of any new hard-rock rare earth mines outside of China that have achieved profitable production due to high capital costs and technical challenges associated with new process development and operation,′ he adds. 

Monazite processing has a track record of ′reliable′ production of rare earths and represents a ′compelling opportunity′ to address the perceived disruption risk looming over supply chains outside of China.

For more information, visit: www.pelemountain.com