Frontier Rare Earths

"Frontier’s James Kenny debunks the major rare earth industry debates" Posted on March 13, 2014 by Tracy Weslosky http://investorintel.com/rare-earth-intel/frontiers-james-kenny-debunks-major-rare-earth-industry-debates/

http://www.ariva.de/news/kolumnen/Das-K-O-Kriterium-fuer-Seltene-Erden-Aktien-Wie-man-die-Spreu-vom-Weizen-trennt-4884286

http://web.tmxmoney.com/charting.php?qm_symbol=FRO Erfreut: Der Teras.

Costly Extraction There is a growing realisation within the rare earths extraction sector that those develop- ment projects that do not possess well under- stood geologies will find it increasingly difficult to attract financing, which may result in those projects falling by the wayside in the medium term. Phillip Kenny, president of South Africa-focused project developer Frontier Rare Earths, which is developing its flagship Zandkopsdrift, project, in the Northern Cape, recently told Mining Weekly that if a prospective rare earths company had not already identified one of the three well understood rare-earths ores, chances of attracting capital were slim. Kenny explained rare earths are most economically extracted with proven processes from the minerals bastnaesite, monazite and xenotime. Any other of the more than 200 minerals known to contain essential or significant rare-earth elements (REE) would require extensive R&D to find an economically sensible process to extract REEs, which would take a lot of time and cost excessive amounts of money. Financiers were increasingly asking for process flow sheets before they would con- sider lending developers a dime. “The race is on to become the next rare earths producer, and we are ahead, owing to being the only rare earths junior which already has a significant strategic offtake partner. We are also well funded and the Zandkopsdrift project’s mainly monazite resource would enable us to produce rare earths at a very economical cost,” Kenny aid. He was referring to a deal closed in December with Korean government-owned mining and natural resource investment company Korea Resources Corporation (Kores), which has acquired a 10% interest in Frontier’s Zandkopsdrift rare earths project, along with an offtake right and obligation for 10% of the production. The company said it believed the C$23.8-million deal made it the only junior company in the rare earths sector to have signed and completed a definitive agreement with a significant strategic partner. Under the terms of the agreement, Kores has the option to increase its participation in Zandkopsdrift to 50%, together with an offtake right and obligation for up to half of the production from the project. Further, Kores has agreed to arrange project finance to develop the entire project on the best available market terms and to provide pro rata funding for the portion of Zandkopsdrift development costs not covered by the project finance, while it would also be responsible for providing technical and operating experience for the design, con- struction and operation of the Zandkopsdrift facilities. Frontier added that it was willing to cooperate with Kores with regard to downstream opportunities in the area of rare-earth metals, alloys and magnets. Frontier said its cash balance was boosted to C$52-million by the transaction and was expected to be sufficient to fund the completion of a preliminary feasibility study (PFS) and a definitive feasibility study at Zandkopsdrift, work on the company’s other proposed exploration and development programmes as well as for corporate overheads. Kores is also required to pay Frontier 10% of all operating costs and expenses related to Zandkopsdrift from July onwards, amounting to about C$400 000 as at the end of November. In April 2012, Frontier started work on a Canadian National Instrument 43-101- compliant PFS on Zandkopsdrift. Kenny said most of the requisite ancillary studies were now either completed or were at an advanced stage. “The group of REE development companies have indeed already become smaller, as pressure on rare earths prices have made many projects uneconomical,” he said. However, he believes prices have bottomed out and, with growing demand from producers of smartphones, electric vehicles and magnets, REE prices are expected to climb. Kenny pointed out the Zandkopsdrift project would be an integrated operation, meaning it would export the separated REEs to Korea. The highest-value heavy rare-earth oxides, namely europium, terbium and dysprosium, are contained at elevated levels at Zandkopsdrift, compared with several other deposits being evaluated in Australia and North America. ... http://www.miningweekly.com/article/rare-supplies-2013-05-10