Rare Element Resources Ltd. (NYSE MKT: REE) (TSX: RES), a mineral resources company advancing development of the Bear Lodge Critical Rare Earth Project, announced today that it has filed a utility patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Office that combines its initial provisional patent on the “Rare Earth Element Extraction” process technology, filed in January 2013, with its “Extraction of Thorium from Rare Earth Compounds and Related Methods” provisional patent, filed in November 2013.  Collectively, this extraction technology enhances the recovery of rare earth elements from ores mined from the Company’s Bear Lodge Project in northeast Wyoming, improving the efficiency of the process and isolating the thorium for easy and safe third-party disposal.

“The pilot plant test work completed this past year confirmed our ability to scale up the patent-pending process and validated its success at selectively precipitating the rare earths found in the Bear Lodge ore, producing a 97%-pure rare earth concentrate,” stated Jaye Pickarts, Chief Operating Officer.  “Additionally, the ability to selectively isolate and economically remove thorium means that we will be able to provide a safe and value-added product to our customers.  Our test work also identified several other opportunities to both lower operating costs and generate additional revenues, including optimizing reagent use, possible byproduct recovery and downstream elemental separation, which we are currently studying.”
 

The utility patent, entitled “Extraction of Metals from Metallic Compounds” was filed by Rare Element Resources Ltd. on January 18, 2014.  Dr. Henry Kasaini, Director of Science and Technology for Rare Element Resources, is named as inventor on the patent.  Past and present pilot plant test work is being conducted at SGS Lakefield Canada under the supervision and oversight of Dr. Kasaini.  The pilot plant work undertaken in 2013 focused on confirmation of the flow sheet for the beneficiation of Bear Lodge ore.  The work was conducted over a four-week period at a production scale of 240kg/day.  Additional optimization work has been ongoing since the initial pilot testing was concluded.

Rare Element Resources Ltd. is a publicly traded mineral resource company focused on exploration and development of rare-earth element deposits, specifically those with significant distribution of critical rare earths.  The Company is advancing development of the Bear Lodge Project, located in northeast Wyoming.  Bear Lodge is a significant mineralized district containing many of the less common, more valuable critical rare earths that are essential for electronics, fiber optics, laser systems for health and defense, as well as many evolving green technologies, like hybrid cars, solar panels and wind turbines.  Permitting and feasibility work on the Project is currently underway.