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Tasman Metals receives mining lease for Swedish rare earths project

21st May 2013

By: Henry Lazenby

Creamer Media Deputy Editor: North America

  

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TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Rare earths project developer Tasman Metals on Tuesday announced that it has received a 25-year mining lease for the Norra Karr heavy rare-earth element (REE) project in Sweden.

Tasman said the mining lease gave the company the full mineral rights for the project for the period, which would then automatically be renewed in ten-year increments, should the mine be operational.

The Swedish Mining Inspectorate granted the lease after extensive stakeholder consultation and stakeholders now had a five-week window within which to appeal.

Independent consultants had collected extensive environmental and social-impact data over several years, recording flora and fauna; water quality in streams and lakes; the character of river, lake and soil sediments; and the biogeochemistry of local plants. The region’s archaeology was also studied, including possible waste-rock and tailings composition, its leaching character and potential locations for the future tailings storage.

Through regular community meetings and with the input from various local and regional government agencies, no obstacles to the Norra Karr project were identified.

"The social-impact studies we completed, highlighted the very positive regional impact that Tasman's sustained investment in Norra Karr can bring. As Norra Karr can supply much of the European demand for REE's for at least 40 years, we believe the supply security it shall provide will have a far-reaching effect,” Tasman president and CEO Mark Saxon said.

The company is one of the many juniors in the rare earths space hoping to help wean the world off its heavy dependence on China for the group of 17 elements used in a range of technologies, from lighter flints to guided missiles and smartphones. China contributed over 95% of global supplies in 2011.

The Norra Karr project was one of only two Canadian National Instrument 43-101-compliant REE resources within the European Union, both fully owned by Tasman.

The company believed it was one of the largest and most economically robust projects among its peers, owing to the high contribution of the high-value critical REE's – dysprosium, yttrium, neodymium and terbium.

Substantial capital and operating cost benefits were provided by the existing infrastructure and the simple mineralogy that would allow for ambient temperature and pressure processing. Norra Karr's proximity and road access to European markets were considered as other operating advantages for the project.

The Norra Karr rare earths project, in southern Sweden, would cost $290-million to build and had a $1.46-billion net present value.

Tasman’s TSX-V-listed stock had increased by 8.45% on Tuesday to trade at C$0.77 apiece on Tuesday.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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