Proactiveinvestors recommends
Additional Information
Market: TSX, AMEX
Sector: General Mining
EPIC: QRM
Latest Price: 1.77  (-4.52% Descending)
52-week High: 2.91
52-week Low: 1.75
Market Cap: 109.42M
1 year chart
digital-look imported chart image
1 day chart
digital-look imported chart image
Quest Rare Minerals
www.questrareminerals.com

Quest Rare Minerals is a Canadian-based, exploration company focused on the identification and discovery of new world-class Rare Earth deposit opportunities.

Full Quest Rare Minerals profile here
Pdf

Quest Rare Minerals up over 20% on 2011 drilling results at Strange Lake

12th Jan 2012, 3:23 pm by Deborah Sterescu
Quest Rare Minerals up over 20% on 2011 drilling results at Strange Lake

Quest Rare Minerals (CVE:QRM)(AMEX:QRM) rallied over 20 percent Thursday after reporting results from its 2011 definition diamond drilling program on its Strange Lake B-Zone rare earth element (REE) deposit in Quebec.

Final results for holes BZ-11-118 to BZ-11-255 returned multiple, high grade intersections of between 1.12% and 6.11% total rare earth oxide (TREO), over thicknesses of 2.34 to 147.0 metres, the company said.

The higher in value heavy rare earth oxide (HREO) represents between 22.4% and 76.5% of the TREO content intersected in the new drilling.

Among the best holes of the infill program, BZ11218 hit 1.44% TREO over 144.4 metres, and hole BZ11189 returned 1.23% TREO over 116.1 metres, including 3.04% TREO over 11.7 metres and 4.9% TREO over 4.9 metres.

In addition, BZ11135 encountered 1.18% TREO over 95.9 metres, including 1.48% TREO over 45.6 metres and 3.29% TREO over 9.9 metres.

The company said mineralization at the site continues to be characterized by significant enrichment in zirconium, niobium and hafnium.

Results also showed that mineralization continues to the lateral and vertical limits of the pit shell and remains open to the southwest and northeast.

"Our 2011 definition program has now provided Quest with the confidence of good continuity and grade of the B-Zone deposit within the pit shell outline established by our April 2011 Revised Resource Estimate," said president and CEO, Peter Cashin.

"Our exploration efforts will now focus on upgrading our Indicated and Inferred Resource into Proven and Probable Reserves, to be used in the pre-feasibility study now underway for the B-Zone.

"We have now defined sufficient resources to more than satisfy the minimum 25-year production model established by the Preliminary Economic Assessment report delivered in 2010. Geotechnical and metallurgical drilling in support of our pre-feasibility study was also completed during the 2011 field season."

Assays have now been received for 138 diamond drill holes, or the 17,110 metres completed in 2011, which tested the extent of the B-Zone mineralization to the limits of the Whittle Pit shell established by Quest's revised resource estimate in April.

The new drilling was focused on tight definition of the upper 150 metres of the deposit, although mineralization was seen to continue down to 325 metres vertical. In addition to enlarging the peripheral limits to the deposit within the pit shell, drilling indicates that "good higher-grade Pegmatite-style mineralization" continues to the southwest, past the established limit to the pit shell, the company said.

The B-Zone rare earth deposit at Strange Lake currently has an NI 43-101 compliant indicated resource of 36.4 million tons grading 1.16% TREO. When the mine begins operations, it is expected to produce about 13,500 tons of TREO per year with a mine life conservatively estimated at 25 years. The company has estimated a four-year payback on investment of $563.4 million in capital expenditures to develop the mine. This time frame may well be shortened by the rise in REE prices and with improving grades of the deposit.

As well as the definition drilling last year, 53 holes for 4,772.0 metres were completed for metallurgical testing purposes across the full extent of mineralization defined within the pit shell. This data will be used in the pre-feasibility study that is now underway on the B-Zone.

Quest said that plans for upcoming winter and summer exploration programs on the B-Zone are "well advanced", and will include 15,000 metres of exploration and geotechnical drilling, prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling, as well as the collection of additional bulk sample material to supplement an 18-tonne sample currently in storage.

This material will be used for the planned pilot mill testing program once the metallurgical flow sheet for the B-Zone has been finalized.

Exploration drilling in 2012 will focus on defining additional areas of surface high grade Pegmatite-style mineralization on five priority targets at the property.

The company has also been collecting data in a parallel path for the bankable feasibility study (BFS) to follow the pre-feasibility study, in an effort to fast track the BFS.

Shares of Quest Rare Minerals rose over 21 percent, to trade at $3.13 as of 2:59pm ET.

No investment advice

The Company is a publisher and is not registered with or authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). You understand and agree that no content published on the Site constitutes a recommendation that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable or advisable for any specific person. You further understand that none of the information providers or their affiliates will advise you personally concerning the nature, potential, advisability, value or suitability of any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction, investment strategy, or other matter.

You understand that the Site may contain opinions from time to time with regard to securities mentioned in other products, including company related products, and that those opinions may be different from those obtained by using another product related to the Company. You understand and agree that contributors may write about securities in which they or their firms have a position, and that they may trade such securities for their own account. In cases where the position is held at the time of publication and such position is known to the Company, appropriate disclosure is made. However, you understand and agree that at the time of any transaction that you make, one or more contributors may have a position in the securities written about. You understand that price and other data is supplied by sources believed to be reliable, that the calculations herein are made using such data, and that neither such data nor such calculations are guaranteed by these sources, the Company, the information providers or any other person or entity, and may not be complete or accurate.

From time to time, reference may be made in our marketing materials to prior articles and opinions we have published. These references may be selective, may reference only a portion of an article or recommendation, and are likely not to be current. As markets change continuously, previously published information and data may not be current and should not be relied upon.