Vital Metals’ June 2022 Quarterly Report

28 July 2022

June 2022 Quarterly Report, ASX / Media Announcement, 28 July 2022

Highlights

  • Commissioning commences at Vital’s Saskatoon Rare Earths Extraction Plant, with ore fed into the dense media separation (DMS) unit.
    • High-grade concentrate of 43.7% TREO and 75.2% TREO recovery (single pass) achieved from the first commissioning trial of DMS unit
    • TREO concentrate grade (the Sinks) achieved comparable to the laboratory metallurgical testwork grade performed by SGS, 43.7% TREO vs 44.6% TREO
    • Vital has an initial production and delivery target of 2.5 tonnes of rare earth carbonate to offtake partner REEtec in October 2022
    • Phase 2 will then commence with throughput ramp-up and associated contract deliveries to REEtec.
  • Results from Vital’s North Tardiff testwork exceed expectations for Stage 2 REO operations at Nechalacho
    • Metallurgical testwork completed on mineralisation from Tardiff Zone 1 returns grades of up to 39.9% total rare earth oxides (TREO) after three beneficiation stages with an exceptionally low mass pull to the final concentrate of 3.3%.
    • Testwork achieved a range of grade recovery curves with a high grade 39.9% TREO at 66% recovery concentrate (predominantly bastnaesite) to undergo hydrometallurgical testwork together with a lower grade 20% TREO concentrate at ~76% recovery (light + heavy rare earth mineralisation)
    • Further testwork is underway to determine if Tardiff Zone 1 can produce separate light and heavy rare earth concentrates
  • Vital intersects further broad zones of REO in near-surface drilling at Tardiff Zone 1
    • REO mineralisation intercepts of more than 30m true thickness; results include:
      • 13.7m at 3.91% TREO from 10.3m
      • 22.95m at 2.21% TREO from 28.45m
      • 32m at 2.11% TREO from 60m
      • 48.1m at 2.03% TREO from 13m
    • High value Nd2O3 and Pr6O11 content of rare earths estimated at an impressive level of 24.5% TREO
    • Tardiff Zone 1 remains open in all directions with a higher grade zone on the north-east edge of the latest drilling
    • Vital will include results in a new resource upgrade for Tardiff
  • Vital aims to develop the larger Tardiff deposit as part of Stage 2 operations at Nechalacho
  • Vital is executing a three-stage strategy to become the world’s first rare earths producer capable of producing commercial quantities of both heavy and light rare earths.

Canada’s first rare earths producer Vital Metals Limited (ASX: VML l OTCQB: VTMXF) (“Vital”, “Vital Metals” or “the Company”) is pleased to report on its activities during the June 2022 quarter, including at its 100%-owned Nechalacho Rare Earth Project in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.

Vital Metals Managing Director Geoff Atkins said: “This quarter has seen us continue to make progress with our strategy to be the world’s first producer of both heavy and light rare earth oxides. We reached an exciting milestone with the commissioning of our Saskatoon Rare Earths Extraction Plant. Our first run achieved laboratory test grades for total rare earths with 75% recovery with low grade feed material, which exceeded our expectations and bodes well for future optimisation.

“The next step will be to commission the calcination, leaching and purification equipment over the coming months as we work to fill our initial delivery to offtake partner REEtec in Norway before ramping up production.

“We also received promising results from metallurgical testwork at the Tardiff Zone 1 deposit. These results reaffirmed the high potential of Nechalacho to become a large-scale, long-life rare earths operation.”

Read the full release with images, tables, and sections here. 

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