NioCorp Developments Ltd. (TSX: NB) announced today positive results from the planned rare earth elements extraction at its Elk Creek Project in Nebraska. The firm, through its Salt Lake City-based contractor L3 Process Development, has been working on rare-earth production on the site.
The company has so far demonstrated that scandium can be extracted and separated using a phosphate-based extractant. It has also shown that the rare earth elements (lanthanum through lutetium, including the magnetic rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium) can be selectively extracted and separated from the leach solution using an amide-based extractant.
“Both the phosphate and amide-based extraction testing have performed exactly to plan, and I look forward to continuing our efforts to verify this a cost-effective way to produce commercial rare earth products from the Elk Creek flowsheet,” said L3 Process CTO Tommee Larochelle.
Additional testing is slated to further verify and optimize the rare earth extraction processes. Alongside, L3 Process is also working on a small-scale integrated demonstration plant at its Quebec facility.
NioCorp last traded at $1.29 on the TSX.
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