Nuinsco Resources Limited (TSX:NWI) today reported that work will commence immediately on a metallurgical program to explore the recovery of pyrochlore in concentrate from its 100%-owned Prairie Lake phosphorus – rare metals project in northwestern Ontario. Pyrochlore, a niobium-bearing mineral, occurs throughout the Prairie Lake carbonatite complex and constitutes a significant potential economic component to the multi-commodity mineralization of the project. The phosphorus-bearing mineral apatite and rare earth elements in both apatite and rare earth-bearing minerals such as ancylite further demonstrate the potential economic viability of this project which is remarkable also for the scale of the mineralization (currently at 515-630Mt in a 43-101 compliant ETMI) and superb logistics and location.
 

The niobium test work will be conducted by Corem in Quebec City, the laboratory which has completed other metallurgical test work on the Prairie Lake mineralization. Approximately 300-400kg of material will be used in the tests which will assess the effects of grinding, gravity separation, magnetic separation, flotation and reagents on pyrochlore concentrate production. As part of the study, the potential for a magnetite-iron concentrate will also be examined. The study is expected to take six to eight months to complete.
 

Widely occurring in the rocks at the Prairie Lake carbonatite complex at a grade of 0.09-0.11% Nb2O5 (from 43-101 compliant ETMI) is the niobium-bearing mineral pyrochlore. The niobium content of the rock at Prairie Lake is sufficiently high to make the production of a niobium by-product a distinct possibility. Niobium is used in structural steels where the addition of small amounts imparts strength. These alloys are principally employed in the automotive industry, where their greater strength allows for lighter structure and improved energy efficiency. Niobium is also used in tubular steels for gas pipelines, while super-alloys containing niobium are widely used in aircraft engines and as bone replacements in medicine. In other applications, niobium is used in the manufacture of high refractive-index lenses and electronic capacitors and in super-conducting niobium-titanium wire used in such devices as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines used in healthcare and particle accelerators, and as catalysts for producing bio-fuels from vegetable crops.
 

About Prairie Lake

Located about 45 kilometres northwest of Marathon, Ontario, Nuinsco’s Prairie Lake property covers the entire 2.8 km2 (at surface) Prairie Lake carbonatite complex and is easily accessible from the TransCanada Highway. In January, 2012, Nuinsco bought back a 2% production royalty making the property royalty-free.
 

The NI-43-101-compliant ETMI is 515 – 630 million tonnes grading between 0.09-0.11% Nb2O5 (0.9 to 1.1 kg/tonne) and 3.0-4.0% P2O5 – making Prairie Lake one of the world’s ten largest carbonatite hosted niobium deposits (and in North America second only to the Iron Hill Project in Colorado, USA, in contained tonnes – the grade at Prairie Lake is however greater). The current metallurgical work establishes the project as a substantial, recoverable, phosphorus inventory. The suite of minerals of potentially economic significance also includes tantalum (Ta), uranium (U) and REEs (including lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), samarium (Sm), neodymium (Nd) and yttrium (Y)). The ETMI was undertaken by Eugene Puritch, P.Eng. and Antoine Yassa, P.Geo of P&E Mining Consultants Inc. of Brampton, Ontario.
 

All exploration work at Prairie Lake is supervised by Laura Giroux, P.Geo, Senior Geologist, who acts as Nuinsco’s Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. Ms. Giroux has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this news release. The potential quantity and grade of the ETMI is conceptual in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in the discovery of a mineral resource.

About Nuinsco Resources Limited

Nuinsco is a growth-oriented, multi-commodity mineral exploration company that is focused on world-class mineralized belts in Canada and internationally. In addition to its property holdings in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Turkey, Nuinsco owns common shares in Coventry Resources Limited (TSX:CYY) and Victory Nickel Inc.(TSX:NI),and a 50% interest in CBay Minerals Inc. (50% Nuinsco, 50% Ocean Partners Investments Limited), a private company that is a dominant player in Quebec’s Chibougamau mining camp with assets including a permitted mill and tailings facility, eight past-producing copper/gold mines and a 96,000 acre land position.