Reviewed by Mila PereraOct 26 2022
Traction Uranium Corp has announced that it will tackle a study of the Monazite-hosted Rare Earth Elements (REE) at the Key Lake South (KLS) via a “Monazite Beneficiation Study” to be performed by the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC).
Satellite image showing location of the drill hole KEY005 and the oval shaped REE potential area as the red ellipse. Image Credit: Traction Uranium Corp.
The primary purpose of the testing that will be performed by SRC is to identify the most efficient beneficiation route for the concentration of the monazite ore. SRC's services are partly aided by funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP).
The following scope of work has been included in the testing program:
- Chemical analysis and characterization of the as-received feed ore sample, such as ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) spectroscopy
- Comminution of the as-received feed ore sample, such as the sample preparation, heavy liquid separation, and particle size distribution
- Preliminary beneficiation tests consisting of Magnetic Separation, Gravity, and Flotation
Key Lake South (KLS) and REE Showing From Historical Drillhole KEY005:
Historical drillhole KEY005 is situated inside an oval-shaped magnetic moderate, which had intersected abundant pegmatites, with a section of 10.7 m assayed for rare earth elements at SRC, returning an average grade of 0.544% Total Rare Earth Elements (TREE), such as 0.2 m sections with up to 7.611% TREE.
A QEMSCAN Analysis was performed on the sample 011-0185 at SRC and confirmed that “the only observed host for REEs is monazite.”
Our KLS Project continues to present exciting opportunities to harvest and bountiful potentials to unlock. Discovering uranium at KLS is our main priority, having the team identify two new anomalies with a radioactive swamp and radioactive black soil in their first field program at KLS is a tremendous tailwind in support of our quest to discover a high-grade uranium deposit at Key Lake South.
Lester Esteban, Chief Executive Officer, Traction Uranium Corp
Esteban added, “However, the monazite-hosted rare earth elements intersected from historical drill core KEY-005 cannot be ignored and presents a compelling opportunity to consider with SRC having their Rare Earth Element (REE) Processing Facility, which includes a Monazite Processing Unit (MPU) as the first of three processing units, together in the same province (Saskatchewan) as KLS.”