American Rare Earths (ASX: ARR), a critical minerals company focused on reshaping the U.S. rare earths industry, has announced encouraging results from its extensive leach testing program at the Halleck Creek Rare Earths Project in Wyoming, USA. The company, through its subsidiary Wyoming Rare (USA) Inc. is advancing the Halleck Creek Project, a world-class rare earth deposit with the potential to secure America’s critical mineral independence for generations.
The leach testing program, conducted on allanite enriched mineral concentrate from core samples, explored various parameters and leach methods. Key highlights include high light rare earth leach recoveries, with Praseodymium (Pr) achieving 85% and Neodymium (Nd) at 84% under optimal conditions. The tests also showed encouraging heavy rare earth recoveries, with Terbium (Tb) reaching 52% and Dysprosium (Dy) at 46%.
Notably, the testing revealed significantly lower impurity elements of iron and aluminum compared to previous tests performed for the Scoping Study. Post-leach concentrations of iron and aluminum impurities were approximately 5.0x and 2.9x lower, respectively. The company has chosen Atmospheric Tank Leach as the preferred leach method, citing its energy and reagent efficiency, as well as its lower cost compared to other methods.
The company reports that these results provide key data for the ongoing metallurgical testing and mineral processing flow-sheet development for the Cowboy State Mine Pre-Feasibility Study. The next step involves SGS performing scoping impurity removal tests, a crucial part of the mineral processing flow-sheet design for the Pre-Feasibility Study. The company believes this milestone de-risks the project by establishing optimal leach conditions and a preferred arrangement for the PFS flow-sheet.
