TSX-V: RES & AMEX: REE
VANCOUVER, March 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Rare Element
Resources Ltd. (AMEX: REE) (TSXV: RES) has
appointed the following people to lead the 2011 exploration
programs at the 100% owned Bear Lodge REE and Sundance Gold
Projects in Crook County,
Wyoming.
James G. ("Jim") Clark, Ph.D.,
L.Geo. - Vice President of Exploration
Jim Clark continues in his
position as Vice President of exploration, where he has overall
responsibility for all of Rare Element's exploration activities.
Dr. Clark has worked with Rare Element for the past 8 years. He has
had intermittent involvement with the Bear Lodge property since
1986, up to 17 years before Rare Element acquired the project in
2002. Dr. Clark was responsible for the initial discovery and
partial delineation of REE mineralization at the Bull Hill SW and
Bull Hill NW deposits, and he has led the exploration teams since
Rare Element acquired the project. Dr. Clark has extensive
experience with the geology and mineralization of numerous REE
properties in North America, and
he has worked on other REE and alkaline-igneous related commodities
in projects outside of North
America. He received his Ph.D. in geology from the
University of Oregon in 1983.
John T. Ray, M.S. -
Exploration Manager
John Ray is appointed to the
position of Exploration Manager. Mr. Ray is now responsible for REE
and gold exploration activities at the Company's Bear Lodge and
Sundance Projects, respectively. Following his term as
Newmont Mining's on-site project manager at the Sundance project from 2004-2009, John was
retained by Rare Element to manage its Sundance gold exploration project in 2010.
John supervised the work that led to the Company's first ever gold
resource estimate, announced in a news release dated March 14, 2011. John has worked previously for
INCO/ACNC and as a consultant for many major mining corporations.
He received his M.S. in geology from the University of North Dakota in 1979, where he did
his thesis work on the Tinton alkaline complex, not far from the
Bear Lodge project.
Ellen D. Leavitt, Ph.D., CPG -
Chief Geologist-REE
Ellie Leavitt is
appointed to the position of Chief Geologist/REE. Ellie has
consulted for the Company since 2008. She managed the Company's REE
resource definition and exploration programs in 2010, overseeing
the drilling of more than 45,000 feet of core and expansion of the
resource base at the Bull Hill SW and Bull Hill NW deposits. Ellie
will be responsible for direct oversight of the REE exploration
program. She has almost 30 years of mineral exploration and
environmental geology experience, and has made major contributions
to the Bear Lodge REE project. Dr. Leavitt received her Ph.D. in
geology from the University of Nevada,
Reno in 2004.
James D.
Leavitt, M.S. - Chief Geologist/Gold
James D. Leavitt
is appointed as Chief Geologist/Gold. Jim will oversee all aspects
of the Company's Sundance project
gold exploration program. Jim brings a wealth of gold exploration
experience to the Company. He has more than 30 years of experience
conducting gold and base metal exploration projects in the U.S. and
internationally. Jim has worked for Noranda Exploration, Homestake
Mining, the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Gold, and Agnico-Eagle. He
received his M.S. degree in geology from the University of Oregon in 1980.
Rare Earth and Gold Exploration Teams
The Rare Element's on-site REE exploration team
will consist of 6 additional professional, geologists plus support
personnel. The gold exploration team includes 3 additional
geologists plus support personnel. The Company expects to have
three core drilling rigs and a reverse circulation drill rig in
order to accomplish a 40,000 ft+ REE drill program and a 20,000 ft
+ gold drill program in 2011.
Stock Option Grant
The Company has issued stock options to its
directors, officers, and consultants for a total of 985,000 options
to purchase common shares of the Company at an exercise price of
$10.50 per share for a period of five
years, expiring on 16 March 2016, and
subject to the TSX Venture Exchange's approval.
Cash Position and Share Structure
Update
Rare Element has also had a total of 1,331,271
warrants, 67,137 brokers' warrants and 364,500 options exercised
since January 1, 2011 and has cash on
hand of approximately $71.5 million
dollars and 43,455,173 common shares outstanding. There are
only 119,287 warrants and 316,503 agent's warrants outstanding with
exercise prices of $4.75 and
$9.00 expiring from April 13, 2012 and December 22, 2012, respectively.
The Company's budget for 2011 is approximately
$15 million which includes completion
of an updated REE resource estimate, REE and gold drilling
programs, metallurgical confirmation and optimization test, and
preparation of a NI 43-101 compliant pre-feasibility study on the
rare earth elements deposit at in Crook
County, Wyoming.
Correction to Gold Resource News
Release
Rare Element notes that the news releases dated
March 14, 2011 outlining the
Companies first ever gold resource estimate on the Sundance gold project contained the correct
details in the table which outlined the resources in detail.
However, one paragraph discussing the Smith gold resource estimate used the word "ounces"
which should have read "grams" in two places. The sentence should
have read: "The new Smith resource
includes 25.2 million tonnes grading 0.50 grams of gold/tonne at a
cutoff of 0.15 gpt." Please refer to the news release dated
March 14, 2011 for the full details
of the NI 43-101 compliant gold resource estimate.
Rare Element Resources Ltd (TSX-V: RES &
AMEX: REE) is a publicly traded mineral resource
company focused on exploration and development of rare-earth
elements and gold on the Bear Lodge property.
Rare-earth elements are key components of the
green energy technologies and other high-technology applications.
Some of the major applications include hybrid automobiles, plug-in
electric automobiles, advanced wind turbines, computer hard drives,
compact fluorescent light bulbs, metal alloys, additives in
ceramics and glass, petroleum cracking catalysts, and a number of
critical military applications. China currently produces more than 95% of the
130,000 metric tonnes of rare-earths consumed annually worldwide,
and China has been reducing its
exports of rare earths each year. The rare-earth market is growing
rapidly, and is projected to accelerate if the green technologies
are implemented on a broad scale.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Donald E.
Ranta, PhD, PGeo, President & CEO
This news release was prepared by Company
management, which takes full responsibility for content. Neither
TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that
term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange)
accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this
release.
SOURCE Rare Element Resources Ltd.