VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Search Minerals Inc. (“Search” or the “Company”) (TSXV:SMY) is pleased to announce that it has received notice from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (the “CEAA”) confirming that the Foxtrot Project will require an environment assessment. This is a milestone event in the development of the Foxtrot Rare Earth Element Project.
The CEAA has posted a “Notice of Commencement” for the federal environmental assessment on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Registry.
The Notice of Commencement can be accessed at the following link:
The CEAA has also prepared draft environmental impact statement guidelines (the “Guidelines”) for the Foxtrot Rare Earth Element Mine Project. The draft Guidelines are available for public comment until February 14, 2018 and can be can be accessed at the following link on the CEAA website:
The Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial government could determine that further study is required, and issue separate guidelines from that provided by the CEAA. It is expected that the provincial guidelines would augment the CEAA and Search would work with both the Federal and Provincial governments and submit one document for review.
Greg Andrews, President & CEO states: “This notice by the CEAA is a milestone in the development of the Foxtrot Rare Earth Element Project in Southeastern Labrador. We look forward to the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement and working with all our current and future stakeholders in an open and transparent manner. In addition, upon review of the Guidelines, Search can initiate the planning to commence the environmental base line studies which have been identified.”
About Search Minerals Inc.
Led by a proven management team and board of directors, Search is focused on finding and developing resources within the emerging Port Hope Simpson Critical Rare Earth Element (“CREE”) District of South East Labrador (the “District”). The Company controls a belt 70 km long and 8 km wide including its 100% interest in the FOXTROT Project which is road accessible and at tidewater. Exploration efforts have advanced “Deep Fox” and “Fox Meadow” as significant new CREE prospects very similar and in close proximity to the original FOXTROT discovery. While the Company has identified more than 20 other prospects in the District, its primary objective remains development of FOXTROT with the clearly demonstrated success of the proprietary processing technology at the pilot plant level and delineation of prospects that will ensure competitive-low cost production beyond the 14-year mine life contemplated in the preliminary economic assessment of FOXTROT completed in April 2016. The FOXTROT Project has a low capital cost to bring the initial project into production ($152 M), a short payback period and is scalable due to Search’s proprietary processing technology. The preliminary economic assessment is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. The preliminary economic assessment includes the results of an economic analysis of mineral resources. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.
