InvestorIntel: Dr. Tony Mariano on the Future Demand for Heavy Rare Earths

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 4, 2014) - Dr. Anthony (‘Tony’) Mariano of Mariano Consulting speaks to Tracy Weslosky, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of InvestorIntel. Dr. Mariano addresses a question presented by noted rare earths industry expert Jack Lifton, who wants to know whether he has the same outlook on the future supply of the heavy rare earths today as he did a year ago. “In general yes” says Dr. Mariano, “but the only change would be I have a better feeling for soft China clay, ion absorption rare earth occurrences exclusive to China.” Essentially, that is the same outlook as last year, says Tracy, who gets right to the point and asks Tony what his top picks are for the rare earth industry.

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Dr. Mariano starts with “Matamec with its Kipawa deposit in Quebec, Tasman’s Nora Karr deposit in Sweden; and at this time Lofdal has a very good possibility with xenotime in Namibia and, in particular, Mining Ventures Brazil in their ion-absorbed rare earth occurrence that they have recently announced: I’m very impressed.” Matamec Explorations (TSXV: MAT | OTCQX: MHREF) has continued to perform well relative to other rare earths juniors and Tony has followed its progress closely. Dr. Mariano said that the heavy rare earths that they have occur in the mineral eudialyte and that mineral occurs sufficient grade and tonnage to survive a number of years in exploitation. Matamec’s Kipawa deposit is also rich in other heavy rare earth bearing minerals such as mosandrite and britholite “and they would be physically processed at the same time that eudialyte is being processed. So, the physical processing is very similar at Kipawa.” Dr. Mariano also explains what makes Ucore’s (TSXV: UCU | OTCQX: UURAF) project in Alaska so interesting from a geological perspective. He says the deposit presents thin veins that present “several heavy rare earth minerals that are very fine grain.” Although the logistics in Alaska are excellent, the “processing can be a problem because there’s a great deal of gangue (commercially worthless material surrounding the desired mineral) that has to be dealt with in order to concentrate the thin veins. And then they have to prove that they can chemically process the mineral and compete. And, as far as I’m concerned in North America, we’re in heavy need of heavy lanthanides”.

As for Tasman Metals (TSXV: TSM | NYSE MKT: TAS). Dr. Mariano says that Tasman has a “cyanidic deposit that consists of several quantities of eudialyte that typically has anywhere from 3-8% in weight composed by heavy rare earths in the structure. “The physical processing of the eudialyte can be achieved with ease, the chemical processing may be a little more difficult but I’m told that both Tasman and Matamec have solved the chemical process. So Norra Karr has tonnage and grade and they have the right mineralogy.”

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