Ree Automotive Ltd
We are focused on advancing the Bear Lodge Rare Earth Element (“REE”)
Project located near the town of Sundance in northeast Wyoming. The Bear Lodge
REE Project consists of several large, disseminated REE deposits and a proposed
hydrometallurgical plant to be located near Upton, Wyoming. The Bear Lodge REE
Project is one of the highest-grade REE deposits identified in North America
and one of the highest-grade europium deposits in the world. In addition, the
Bear Lodge REE Project has a favorable distribution of the remaining critical
rare earth elements, which the Company defines as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium,
terbium and yttrium.
In its development efforts for the Bear Lodge REE Project, the Company has
done extensive laboratory bench-scale and pilot plant testing on appropriate
metallurgical processes to recover saleable rare earth products and has filed
five patents on its metallurgical innovations. Among them, it has pilot tested
and filed for patent protection on a rare earth separation technique that modifies
conventional solvent extraction (“SX”) methods used for rare earth
separation to be more efficient and environmentally sound, involving no waste
effluents being discharged from the process. The Company believes that its innovations
on conventional SX processing could also apply to other mineral commodities,
and is currently investigating opportunities to apply its processing technology
to such commodities including uranium, scandium, vanadium and others.
We have placed the Bear Lodge REE Project under care-and-maintenance, and all
permitting activities have been suspended. At present, we are focused on raising
capital and/or seeking strategic partners to resume our efforts to complete
elemental separation test work and technical studies. Based on current permitting
timetables and other factors, the Company anticipates it could receive all permits
and licenses for the Bear Lodge REE project approximately 12 to 18 months after
resuming permitting efforts. If we obtain the requisite financing, the Company’s
plan is to resume development activities, including working in parallel (with
permitting activities) to advance engineering in preparation for the feasibility
study, to gain strategic partners and off-take customers, to evaluate a modular
approach to development beginning with a smaller initial production facility
and to scale up its REE separation test work in further pilot plant testing.
The Company’s ability to begin construction activities on the Project
will be subject to (i) the availability of adequate capital, (ii) a positive
FS, (iii) securing off-take customers, (iv) obtaining necessary permits and
licenses, (v) Board approval, and (vi) other factors.
The Bear Lodge REE Project deposit is located near excellent mining infrastructure,
including good road access and a power line within two kilometers of the property.
The project site is 100 kilometers east of Gillette, Wyoming, a major infrastructure,
support and logistics center for coal mines in the Powder River Basin that should
provide for ready access to the required production supplies and materials as
well as skilled labor. The deposit is also situated 64 kilometers from the nearest
railhead at Upton, Wyoming, allowing access to major distribution channels from
the proposed hydrometallurgical plant. The Bear Lodge REE Project has favorable
community acceptance, and Wyoming is one of the top-ranked mining jurisdictions
globally (based on the Fraser Institute’s 2015 ranking of 122 jurisdictions).