30 October 2019
Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. is pleased to report that further to its news release dated June 24, 2019, it has now received the final installment payment of the $5 million purchase price from Cheetah Resources Pty Ltd. (“Cheetah”) for the near-surface resources on the Nechalacho rare earth elements property at Thor Lake near Yellowknife, NWT, Canada. The parties are now working towards finalization of the terms of a co-ownership agreement that will allow Cheetah to move forward with development of the near-surface rare earth resources in the T-Zone deposit in collaboration with Avalon.
Since the original purchase agreement was entered in June 2019, Avalon managed a $900,000 summer work program on the North T deposit for Cheetah involving core re-logging and sampling, followed by an 800 metre, 19 hole diamond drilling program completed in September-October. The work program also included shipping of a 75 tonne stockpiled bulk sample for testwork to confirm the sensor-based ore-sorting process being developed for the unique coarse grained quartz-bastnaesite mineralization present in the upper part of the T-Zone deposit.
The diamond drilling results will allow preparation of a new resource estimate for the T-Zone which, combined with process testwork and additional environmental assessment work, will define the model for proceeding with pilot scale development of the T-Zone rare earth (bastnaesite) resource in 2020. Commented Avalon President & CEO, Don Bubar, “With all the recent concern in the United States about security of supply of rare earths and other critical minerals outside China, this program represents a very timely opportunity to initiate a new rare earths supply chain in North America.”