Canadian Rare Earth Sector – Opportunities &

CREEN's Leadership Contribution

Ian M. London P. Eng, MBA

Chair, CREEN; Chair, ISO/TC298 REE Canadian Mirror Committee

Brazil-Canada Seminar/Roundtable on Rare Earths

March 7th, 2017

CREEN Objectives

CREEN is an industry-led

multi-stakeholder

network, that promotes

and provides

collaborative solutions

that advance Canada’s

REE sector to produce

and serve the global

supply market for

separated critical rare

earth products.

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▪ Timely solutions for technical and

economic issues

▪ Partnerships with other national and

international organizations, incl. joint

funding opportunities.

▪ Training and education of needed

qualified human resources

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CREEN’s engagement in industry

• CREEN formed in August 2013 -- an outcome of a series of annual Rare Earth Workshops hosted by Natural Resources Canada

• CREEN appeared before the federal Government’s Natural Resource and Finance Committees in 2015 in support of securing funding for, and is actively engaged in Canada’s Canadian REE R&D Initiative. CREEN serves as co-chair of the Initiative’s Steering Committee

• CREEN also engaged with ISO REE standards committee, NATO REE supply chain technical panels, and partners in seminars/conferences

Canada Hosts Rich REE Deposits &

Advanced Project Developments

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Canada Long REE History

• Canada has actually been a pioneering producer of

yttrium and other heavy rare earth elements from

the Elliot Lake ores - along with commercial

production of thorium from about 1960 to 1991.

• Canada has demonstrated REE process

development strengths -- with numerous Canadian

and non-Canadian deposits investigated or under

investigation in Canadian laboratories and studied

by Canadian engineering companies

Collaborative supply chain initiatives will

ensure Canada’s Vision & Goals are delivered

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CREEN Framework

▪ Near term

▪ Short, focused, industry-driven project work to support rapid production opportunities and secure Canada’s position as a key producer in the global marketplace

▪ Applying existing mineral processing, hydrometallurgy and chemical process engineering to develop unique solutions

▪ Medium to longer term

▪ Deliver improved process solutions and target more strategic, fundamental technology development

▪ Focus on further downstream processing towards finished products (e.g. metals, alloys, phosphors)

▪ Investigate new applications and market opportunities for REEs

▪ Train and develop highly qualified personnel (HQP)

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Canada’s MetSoc hosts Rare Earth Symposia

• Internationally recognized technical symposia first

convened in September 2012 in Niagara Falls

• The four REE Symposium COM ‘12,’13,’14 & ‘16,

have presented some 200 peer-edited papers from

20 countries along with numerous publications

• Canadian consultants, research laboratories,

engineering companies, and mining companies are

serious players on the REE processing area.

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COM16 REE Symposium (in association with IMPC 2016)

Technical Streams

• Characterization --Mineralogy, Geometallurgy

• Process Control -- Instrumentation, Modelling, Simulation

• Flotation -- From Chemistry to Machines

• Extractive Metallurgy -- Hydro and Pyrometallurgy

• Comminution -- AG/SAG, Crushers, HPGR, Tumbling and Stirred Mills

• Physical Separation -- Gravity, Magnetic, Electrostatic, Ore Sorting, Upgrading (physical and chemical)

• Plant Design-- Complex Ores Integrated Flowsheets

• Asset Management-- Sampling, Metal Accounting, Surveys and Flowsheet Improvement

• New Frontiers-- Harsh Environments Including Arctic, Undersea, Space and Beyond

• Environment, Recycling and Social Responsibility

• Dewatering-- Thickening, Filtering, Drying

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CREEN profile increasing

internationally

EU-JAPAN-US TRILATERAL CRITICAL MATERIALS INITIATIVE

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ISO TC298 Rare Earth

Standards

• ISO in the independent, non-governmental organization

with 161 national standards member bodies.

• REE Technical Committee created in late 2015

• Focused on standardization in the field of rare earth

ores, concentrates, metals, alloys, compounds,

materials, including the reuse and recycling of waste

rare earth products.

• Secretariat: Standardization Administration of China

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Organizing ISO’s REE work

WG – Currently six major Working

Groups

NPWI – Specific standards development

initiated under each WG

TC298: Member Countries

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Participating Countries

Australia (SA)

Canada (SCC)

China (SAC)

India (BIS)

Japan (JISC)

Korea, Republic of (KATS)

United States (ANSI)

Observing Countries

Argentina (IRAM) Israel (SII) Portugal (IPQ)

Cuba (NC) Italy (UNI) Saudi Arabia (SASO)

Czech Republic (UNMZ) Malaysia (DSM) Singapore (SPRING SG)

Egypt (EOS) Mexico (DGN) South Africa (SABS)

Finland (SFS) Netherlands

(NEN)

Spain (AENOR)

France (AFNOR) Pakistan (PSQCA) Switzerland (SNV)

Germany (DIN) Poland (PKN) Viet Nam (STAMEQ)

Iran, Islamic Republic of

(ISIRI)

Brazil should

consider playing

an active role

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Future Canadian REE events

• REE Lecture Series April 2017 (leading into CIM

Annual convention)

• Resources for Future Generations 2018

• MetSoc-hosted Extraction 2018

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Thank You

Ian M. London P. Eng., MBA

Canadian Rare Earth Element

Network

ianlondon@rogers.com

647 242 1872