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Rare Earth Minerals' 333pc rise after name change puts Aim under fresh scrutiny
What's in a name? About 10m, according to investors in Aim-listed Rare Earth Minerals Plc, whose share price rose 66pc yesterday.

Rare Earth Minerals' new website can still be found at www.zestmusic.com By Rowena Mason, Energy Correspondent 6:00AM GMT 31 Dec 2010
18 Comments
The company, which does not yet own any rare earth minerals or licences to mine them, was a loss-making music business called Zest until eight days ago.

It has not revealed how it plans to acquire any of the minerals on which China has a near monopoly. Nor has it disclosed the countries where it is targeting acquisitions with just 630,000 of cash in the bank.

However, since it proposed the name change on November 12, its share price has more than quadrupled from 0.35p, valuing it at 3.1m, to 1.52p, valuing it at 13.5m.

The rise is likely to raise further questions about the London Stock Exchange's governance of the AIM market - three years on since Roel Campos, an SEC commissioner, described the junior market as a "like a casino".

It has been under renewed scrutiny since Desire Petroleum's wild share spikes earlier this month. A spokesman for AIM declined to comment on whether the regulatory team is looking into Rare Earth Minerals

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One broker said: "It is penny stock madness, a herd mentality, though I'm not sure what they're trying to cash in on. It is just like a type of dotcom boom situation."

At the height of the dotcom boom, a string of cash shells - companies with a stock market quote but no actual business - listed on AIM. The value collapsed when the bubble burst, prompting the LSE to change its rules.

TD Waterhouse, the retail broker, said Rare Earth Minerals was its most traded stock yesterday, with the most buy orders and fourth most sell orders. "It's the first time I've ever seen it appear in the top ten," a spokesman said.

More than 143m shares changed hands, despite no new publicly available information.

The only announcement the company has made recently has been the award of 98m share options to "directors, staff , consultants and advisors" at 0.5p, redeemable in ten years.

The company's shares also rose sharply in January, when it appointed David Lenigas, a veteran of the world of penny stocks, as a non-executive. He is one of only two board members at Rare Earth Minerals and disclosed he was a director of 94 other companies including Solo Oil, Vatulouka Gold Mines and LonZim.

Last year, a study by Manchester Business School found AIM companies were no more likely to fail than those on other markets. However, they had more chance of survival if older, bigger, had a greater free float and a reputable nominated advisor.

Rare Earth Minerals was unavailable for comment.

Building up into a fren here.

That's a little bit short of a frenzy by the way! :o)

I did wonder kim.

Yangibana Update - Maiden JORC resource

As disclosed in the Hastings announcement on ASX :

· Maiden JORC resource estimate for the Yangibana Project.
· Total JORC Resource of 3.36 million tonnes comprising Indicated Resource of 1.86 million tonnes at 1.38% Total Rare Earth Oxides ("TREO") and Inferred Resource of 1.5 million tonnes at 1.29% TREO at a 0.5% TREO cut-off.
· Major increase of 290% in contained TREO compared to previous non-JORC estimate.
· Significant Neodymium (Nd2O3), a critical rare earth oxide, is included in the contained TREO, with average grade of 2,700 parts per million ("ppm") (0.27%).
· Upgraded resource covers only 825 metres of strike length to a maximum 400 metres down-dip to a maximum vertical depth of 100 metres below surface.
· Resource remains open in all directions with mineralisation cropping out to the east and west.
· Additional reverse circulation and diamond drilling to commence in Q4 on neighbouring targets within the 550 km2 tenements at Yangibana.

Details of Ownership:

On the 1 December 2012 REM announced that it had acquired a 30% free carried interest to Bankable Feasibility Study ("BFS") of the Yangibana Rare Earth Project. Therefore the exploration costs until the commencement of the BFS are borne solely by Hastings Rare Metals Limited (70% owners and operator).

http://www.angelnexus.com/o/web/61876

REM elects to accelerate ownership of Megalit Lithium Joint Venture

Sonora Lithium Project Update

Highlights from the Bacanora release include:

· Plant design is progressing well for a production facility with a capacity of up to 50,000 tonne per annum of Lithium Carbonate.

· Lithium bearing clay units on the Buenavista Concession (part of the Megalit joint venture) have been confirmed to be exposed at surface for 6 km along strike and outcrop over 1.25 km across dip and have returned surface samples of up 1,700 ppm Lithium.

· Detailed drill programme being planned for the Sonora Lithium Project to delineate the open pit design.

· Drilling results from the Megalit Joint Venture have intersected lithium bearing clay units 10 km south of the 2.01 million tonne indicated lithium mineral resource on the Fleur El-Sauz joint venture.

· A drill programme is being designed to expand to expand the current Lithium resources in to the Megalit Joint Venture.

Yangibana Update

Rare Earth Minerals (AIM: REM) advises that Hastings Rare Metals Limited ("Hastings"), REM's 70% joint venture partner in the Yangibana Rare Earth Element Project ("Yangibana") in Western Australia, have announced the latest assay results for rare earth elements from the Yangibana and the new 6,500 metre drill programme.

The full Hastings news release date 25 August 2014 (including maps) is available at:

http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20140825/pdf/42rq4x0x2q3k9z.pdf


Highlights (from Hastings News Release):

· Stage 2 drilling of 6,500m commences at Yangibana.
· Yangibana North JORC resource to be further tested along strike and at depth.
· Seven additional prospective targets to be drilled.
· Programme of Work approved for proposed drilling.
· Heritage Site Clearance completed.
· Reverse circulation and diamond drilling to be undertaken in Q3/Q4 2014.

Summary (from Hasting News Release):

The targets to be tested during Q3/Q4 2014 are all within 100m of surface and most are much shallower. On completion of the planned drilling programme of around 6,500m, it is expected that an Inferred Resource estimate will be feasible at each prospect. The Inferred Resources are also expected to remain open in all directions.

Details of Ownership:

On the 1 December 2012 REM announced that it had acquired a 30% free carried interest to Bankable Feasibility Study ("BFS") of the Yangibana North Rare Earth Deposit. Therefore the exploration costs until the commencement of the BFS are borne solely by Hastings Rare Metals Limited (70% owners and operator).The same terms agreed and announced on 1 December 2012 also apply to five out of the seven additional targets to be drilled which includes Lion's Ear, Hook, Gossan, Kane's Gossan, and Yangibana South.

David Lenigas, REM's Chairman, commented:

"We are seeing some excellent surface sampling results for TREO's on some of the new Prospects on the Yangibana tenements, with grades now recorded up to 128,000 ppm (12.8%) TREO and 21,900 ppm (2.19%) Nd203 (neodymium oxide) at the Lion's Ear Prospect."

"We are particularly pleased with the quantities of neodymium, a Critical Rare Earth Oxide ("CREO"), which is critical for the manufacturing of Permanent Magnets (wind and power turbines), electronic components (heat resistant ceramics) and rechargeable consumer batteries."

Glossary:

· ppm - parts per million. 10,000 ppm equals 1%.

· TREO is the sum of the oxides of the heavy rare earth elements (HREO) and the light rare earth elements (LREO).

HREO is the sum of the oxides of the heavy rare earth elements europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), lutetium (Lu), and yttrium (Y).

CREO is the sum of the oxides of neodymium (Nd), europium (Eu), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), and yttrium (Y) that were classified by the US Department of Energy in 2011 to be in critical short supply in the foreseeable future.

LREO is the sum of the oxides of the light rare earth elements lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), and samarium (Sm).

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Interim Results

HIGHLIGHTS:

Sonora Lithium Project:

· REM holding in Bacanora Minerals Ltd ("Bacanora")
increased from 5.47% to 11.90%.
· Contained Lithium Carbonate Equivalent ("LCE") at Joint
Venture 1 ("JV#1") with Bacanora increased by 35% to 2.01 million tonnes (30% direct ownership).
· Bacanora's La Ventana concessions contained LCE increased by 37% to 1.273 million tonnes.
· Composite samples from JV#1 and La Ventana concessions confirm over 99.5% lithium carbonate purity
· Direct ownership in Joint Venture 2 ("JV#2") increased from 10% to 30% since the period end.
· LCE plant design isprogressing well, with a lithium
carbonate production capacity of up to 50,000 tonnes per annum.
· Overall economic interest in Bacanora Mexican projects increased to 38%.

Yangibana Rare Earth Minerals Project:

· REM holds a 30% free carried interest to bankable feasibility study on the project.
· Subsequent to period end maiden resource estimate declared
of 3.36 million tonnes comprising an Indicated Resource of 1.86
million tonnes at 1.38% Total Rare Earth Oxides ("TREO") and an
Inferred Resource of 1.5 million tonnes at 1.29% TREO at a 0.5% TREO cut-off.

Greenland:

· Initial sampling for Rare Earth Element ("REE") confirms presence of mineralised micro-kakortokite dyke.
· Four samples exceed 2,000 ppm of Total Rare Earth Oxides
("TREO") with the highest being 2,887 ppm TREO.
· Grades are similar to those found at the 4.3 billion tonne
ore tonne Tanbreez deposit owned by TANBREEZ Mining Greenland A/S.

Western Lithium - Update.

Rare Earth Mineral Plc (AIM: REM) is pleased to announce that Western Lithium USA Corporation ("Western Lithium"), in which REM holds an approximate 2.29% interest, has announced that its 12 ton per day calcination demonstration plant is in production. This product will be shipped to Western Lithium's demonstration crystallisation and precipitation plant, which is expected to be operational in November 2014 with lithium compound production from the demonstration plant expected by the end of 2014. Western Lithium will include a lithium hydroxide circuit, in addition to planned production of lithium carbonate, to meet potential new industry requirements.

The purpose of the demonstration plant is to produce lithium carbonate and byproduct samples on pilot scale equipment for strategic investors and potential off-take partners to witness, and to complete a Feasibility Study showing the commercial viability of the project using Western Lithium's patented technology, in order to attract engineering and construction capital.

The Western Lithium news release is shown in full below.

Kiran Morzaria, the Company's Chief Executive Officer commented:

"REM is pleased with Western Lithium's progress towards the commercial production of Lithium compounds from their Kings Valley Lithium Project in Nevada, the USA state where Tesla Motor Corporation have recently announced their intention to build their first lithium-ion Gigafactory."

"To date, the majority of the world's lithium supply comes from brine and hard rock deposits. The Kings Valley Lithium Deposit in Nevada and the Sonora Lithium Deposit in northern Mexico present a potential alternative source of Lithium supply to a market that is estimated to grow significantly over the coming years driven primarily by the growth in the electric vehicle market."

- Ends -

REM's CEO appointed to the board of Bacanora Minerals Ltd


Rare Earth Minerals (AIM: REM) reports that Bacanora Minerals Ltd ("Bacanora"), has today announced the appointment of Kiran Morzaria as a non-executive director of Bacanora with immediate effect. Kiran is the Chief Executive Officer of REM.

REM has an 11.90% shareholding in Bacanora, its joint venture partner in the Sonora Lithium Project in Mexico. This interest, when aggregated with REM's 30% direct interest in the Fleur El-Sauz Lithium Joint Venture ("JV#1") and the 30% direct interest in the Megalit Joint Venture ("JV#2"), results in a total economic interest in the Fleur El-Sauz and Megalit Joint Ventures of approximately 38.3%.

David Lenigas, the Company's Chairman commented:

"The appointment of Kiran, as REM's representative to the board of BCN, is an important step forward in REM's partnership with Bacanora on the overall Sonora Lithium Project in Mexico. Kiran's corporate experience, commercial knowledge and technical training, will provide a strong addition to the board of Bacanora as the Sonora Lithium Project progresses towards commercialisation."

- Ends -

Increase in strategic holding in Nevada Lithium Company.

Rare Earth Minerals (AIM: REM) announces that it has increased its shareholding in Nevada based Western Lithium USA Corporation ("WLC" or "Western Lithium") from 2.29% to 3.02%.

WLC announced on the 8 September 2014 that it has commenced calcination of its lithium clays at its pilot plant facility in Germany to demonstrate the viability of extracting lithium on a large scale from its lithium-rich clay deposit in Kings Valley, Nevada.

WLC also stated on the 8 September 2014, that it will now include a lithium hydroxide circuit to its planned production of lithium carbonate, to meet potential new industry requirements. WLC also stated that it is planning for annual production of up to 26,000 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) which would meet lithium demand for between 500,000 to over 1 million electric cars. >

Positive results from Greenland regional sampling

Highlights:

· Sampling of an exploration target in the 2012/14 exploration license has identified up to 3.59g/t Au, 0.38% Zn, 6.2 ppm Ag and 2% manganese;
· Assays of an outcrop of massive sulphide identified in the northern part of the 2012/15 license returned 5.03 ppm of Ag.

Western Lithium Signs Distribution Agreement f

Western Lithium Signs Distribution Agreement for Us Regional Sales of Hectatone(TM) Products

Rare Earth Mineral Plc (AIM: REM) is pleased to announce that Western Lithium USA Corporation ("Western Lithium"), in which REM holds an approximate 3.02% interest, has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Hectatone Inc. has signed a distribution agreement with Raw Materials Corporation ("RMC") of Houston, Texas to sell the Company's Hectatone™ products in five US states.

The Western Lithium news release is shown in full below.

David Lenigas, the Company's Chairman commented:

"REM is pleased with its investment in Western Lithium and the significant progress that Western Lithium has made over the past few months."

Expansion Plans for the Sonora Lithium Project


Rare Earth Minerals (AIM: REM) advises that our joint venture partner in the Sonora Lithium Project in Mexico (the "Project"), Bacanora Minerals Ltd ("Bacanora"), have announced that it will commence a significant drilling and exploration programme in early November and is working with several key industry consultants to design a full scale lithium plant and mining operation, capable of up to 50,000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate equivalent ("LCE") to complement the already defined indicated mineral resource of 3.26 million tonnes of LCE on the Project.

REM has a 12% shareholding in Bacanora. This interest, when aggregated with REM's 30% direct interest in the Fleur - El Sauz Lithium Joint Venture and the 30% direct interest in the Megalit Joint Venture, results in a total economic interest in each of these joint ventures of approximately 38.40%.
The full news release from Bacanora, dated 30 September 2014, is shown below.

Highlights from the Bacanora release include:

· Drilling programme to commence in November, with up to 5,000 metres to be drilled, to provide detailed open-pit design for mine planning purposes, expand current mineral resource and drill test targets generated from the mapping and prospecting programme on the Megalit concession.

· Bacanora have retained Process Engineering LLC to design a plant capable of 50,000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate.

· Testing has begun for the recovery of lithium hydroxide to meet potential new industry requirements from the electric vehicle markets.

· Trenching and metallurgical testing to commence on the Buenavista area (part of the Megalit Joint Venture). The Buenavista clay deposits are exposed at surface for 6 km along strike and outcrop over 1.25 km across dip and have returned surface samples of up 1,700 ppm Lithium.

· Bacanora is actively working with a number of potential off-take customers for its potential lithium compound production.

David Lenigas, the Company's Chairman commented:

"REM's shareholders have been starved of information on this exciting Lithium Project for some time and we feel that this is the beginning of a very exciting expansion, development and reporting period for the Company."

"We are very pleased with the further tangible progress towards the commercialisation of the Sonora Lithium project. The commencement of the mine and plant design work of a 50,000 tonne per annum lithium carbonate plant, the drilling to expand the mineral resource and working with potential off-takers are further evidence that underpins our belief that Sonora Lithium Project, in Bacanora's words, ranks amongst one of the largest bedrock lithium deposits in the world."

Kiran Mozaria, CEO, Rare Earth Minerals, talks about the expansion plans for the mine & plant

Click here

New Discovery of REE on Greenland Licences

Rare Earth Minerals Plc (AIM: REM) announces, further to its release on the 24 September 2014, that the analysis of samples taken during the recent exploration programme on its 100% owned Greenland exploration licenses has identified a new discovery of Rare Earth Elements ("REE") in southern Greenland near Narsarsuaq .

Highlights:

· 16 samples were re-submitted for full suite of REE analyses with results exceeding the Company's expectations.
· 5 of 16 samples exceeded 7,000 ppm Total Rare Earth Oxides ("TREO") with a further two exceeding 2,000 ppm TREO, with the highest value being 18,179 ppm (1.82%).
· These results included three significant neodymium oxide (Nd2O3) assays which contained 2,928 ppm of Nd2O3.
· Samples were taken from the target area which previously reported mineralised samples of zinc, manganese, silver and gold.

Kiran Morzaria, the Company's Chief Executive Officer commented:

"The discovery of a new Rare Earth Element deposit east of the world class Kvanefjeld REE project is significant for REM. These assay results are orders of magnitude higher than those previously reported and are indeed higher than the reported resource grades on the nearby Tanbreez deposit. In addition some of these samples contain significant quantities of neodymium oxide, which is a critical rare earth oxide or CREO as defined by the US department of energy. This along with the proximity of these results to two of the world's largest REE deposits, is very encouraging indeed."

REE Sampling Results:

Exploration on REM's 100% owned 2012/14 licence, which straddles the contact of the Julianehåb Granite and the Eriksfjord Sandstone, initially showed anomalous zinc in pan concentrates to 1,580 ppm Zn. Lithological sampling in the Eriksfjord Sandstone located samples to 0.38% Zn in float, results that indicated more work was required in the area.

Follow up sampling located significant gold anomalism in veined sandstone with a sample grading 2.59g/t Au and anomalous silver in some of the lithological samples (1.2-6.2 ppm Ag).

Samples taken in the area known to contain mineralisation of up to 0.3% Zn and 2% manganese, returned REE results that were above the detection limit of 500 ppm for Cerium and Niobium, as a result 16 samples were resubmitted for a full suite of REE analysis.

We are reporting today on the analytical results of these 16 samples. Five samples exceeded 7,000 ppm of TREO with the highest being 18,179 ppm TREO. Three samples, one at 9,240 ppm TREO, the second at 9,148 ppm TREO and the third at 18,179 ppm contained Nd2O3 of 1,540 ppm, 1,446 ppm and 2,928 ppm respectively.

The analysis was carried out on outcrop, sub crop and float samples, we are now compiling and interpreting all the results from the programme to determine the scope of further field work, and in particular determine a possible source for the highly anomalous REE results reported on today.

Qualified Person:

Qualified Person Kiran Morzaria B.Eng. (ACSM), MBA, has reviewed and approved the information contained in this announcement. Kiran holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Industrial Geology) from the Camborne School of Mines and an MBA (Finance) from CASS Business School.

Glossary:

· TREO is the sum of the oxides of the heavy rare earth elements (HREO) and the light rare earth elements (LREO).
· CREO, the term was originally defined in the US Department of Energy "Critical Materials Strategy 2010". There are 5 CREOs (neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium and europium), with neodymium being the largest by values and volume. Criticality of CREOs is based on their importance to sustainable clean energy and the supply risk of such elements over the short (0-5 years) and medium term (5-15 years).
· ppm - parts per million.

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Fallen every day for a week.

Update on Magdalena Borate Project

Rare Earth Minerals (AIM: REM) is pleased to announce Bacanora Minerals Ltd ("Bacanora"), a company that REM has a 11.3% shareholding, have announced that is advancing the Magdalena Borate Project toward the feasibility of boric acid production.

The full news release from Bacanora, dated 14 October 2014, is shown below.

Kiran Morzaria, the Company's Chief Executive Officer commented:

"We are very pleased with the progress being made on the Magdalena Borate Project. In January 2013, Bacanora reported a net present value on this asset of US$113 million. The continued advancement of this project provides accretive value to the REM shareholding in Bacanora, and we look forward to hearing and reporting on the progress being made on this asset"

Tipped in the Daily Mail today.