March 26, 2018 – “In the rare earths market we are excited again because interest is starting to come back. We are in an increasing trending market, especially electrification of vehicles is leading it. The permanent magnet space is what we are really in with our key components of our rare earth deposit would fuel that industry of the permanent magnets.” states Greg Andrews, President, CEO and Director of Search Minerals Inc. (TSXV: SMY), in an interview with InvestorIntel’s Jeff Wareham.
Jeff Wareham: Greg, you are in rare earths in Newfoundland. I am going to start with this. What is happening in the rare earths market?
Greg Andrews: In the rare earths market we are excited again because interest is starting to come back. We are in an increasing trending market, especially electrification of vehicles is leading it. The permanent magnet space is what we are really in with our key components of our rare earth deposit would fuel that industry of the permanent magnets.
Jeff Wareham: North America is basically out of the rare earth business. Do you guys think you can change that?
Greg Andrews: Absolutely. Every day that we wake up we are looking to see how we can get to our bankable feasibility study. Yesterday we wanted to drill our Deep Fox Property. We released our assay results to confirm the geological footprint that FOXTROT has. Deep Fox was compelling because of the higher grades and bigger surface expression. We are excited that we may have worked towards 2 resources in our district concept and that will help support that.
Jeff Wareham: You are in Newfoundland, but you are actually in Labrador, which may give people the impression of being somewhat remote. That is not my impression.
Greg Andrews: No. One of the key things in the rare earth space is to get the operating cost down, the capital cost down. We are in great infrastructure. Where our mine, our FOXTROT deposit is 12 kilometers from the town of St. Lewis, which already has a deep-sea port for infrastructure. A road runs right through our property. We have power that we just need to put in and move 12 kilometers down the road. Our Deep Fox project that we are just working on is 2 kilometers. It is in close proximity that we are working in with the environmental use and the infrastructure.
Jeff Wareham: I have had a little bit of experience with it. How are you finding Newfoundland to work with?
Greg Andrews: It is fantastic; the support that we have from everybody, from the governments down. We are just starting our environmental impact statement process so we are meeting with Canadian CEAA and providence to get the baseline studies. We will start with that. They work together cohesively as a team to make sure they want to see the projects through the proper environmental, which we will be transparent and work with all our stakeholders to get it there for our bankable feasibility that we will need.
Jeff Wareham: Good stuff. Investors have already seen great drill results this year. What else should we be watching for?
Greg Andrews: The drilling was only 3 holes out of 500 meters out of 2,000 so we are looking to complete our 2,000. We will start that in May and June. If we have our positive results we are looking to expand that to 4,000 meters and try to catch up Deep Fox with our FOXTROT resource and have two resources at the same level of PEA discussion…to access the complete interview, click here
Disclaimer: Search Minerals Inc. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel Corp.
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