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REGIONAL NEWS - U.S. & CANADA 8 E&MJ; • SEPTEMBER 2017 www.e-mj.com Newrange Starts Geophysical Surveys at Pamlico in Nevada MPX Geophysics has started flying high- resolution airborne magnetic and ra- diometric surveys at Newrange Gold's high-grade Pamlico gold project in Ne- vada. The company also contracted for a ground-based gravity survey to start on or about August 21. These proper- ty-wide geophysical surveys have never been done at Pamlico and are designed to help identify subtle alteration styles and the distribution and extent of favor- able rock types that host the majority of the gold occurrences at Pamlico. The geophysical data will help refine known targets, as well as identify new targets for follow-up. Since acquiring Pamlico, the compa- ny has increased the property size more than 160%, staking 1,337 additional hectares comprising 160 claims that cover more than 7 kilometer (km) along a northwest striking belt of variably altered and mineralized carbonate sediments. The company has identified areas within this belt of highly anomalous gold miner- alization with surface rock chip samples. Combined with ongoing mapping and sampling programs, the geophysical sur- veys will be used to refine drill targets. CEO: Trump Favors National Source for Rare Earths The Trump administration favors the idea of converting the processing plant at Mountain Pass rare earth mine to a na- tional lab for research into rare earth ele- ments (REEs) mining and processing, ac- cording to Michael Silver, CEO, American Elements Corp. Silver met with the pres- ident in July after a consortium spear- headed by a company allegedly linked to the Chinese government acquired the mine, formerly owned by Molycorp, at a bankruptcy auction. Rival bidder, Tom Clarke, owner of ERP Strategic Minerals, said he would contest the result in court. Silver said the president is considering nationalizing Mountain Pass. "They are favorable to the idea of establishing a rare earth source for high technology manufac- turing in the United States," he said. The administration is also consider- ing other related proposals. "There is an effort at the White House to look at all the other deposits around the world and see where we can be helpful," he said. "That would include the very valuable de- posit in Afghanistan, ones in Greenland, as well as putting together a national lab to provide a centralized location for sep- arating rare earths that could be utilized by non-American-based mines as well as the many American-based deposits that are looking for a place to process REEs." Silver said China effectively owns the REEs value chain, and that the U.S., to include the military, is dependent on that value chain for componentry for high tech- nology. Initiating establishing a source within the U.S. for REEs is a crucial step toward countering Chinese hegemony in the sector and regaining national sover- eignty in manufacturing and defense, he said. "If you don't have materials to pro- duce products, you can forget about com- peting on a global level," he said. "The country that has the raw materials at the right price will beat you every time." Mountain Pass, originally owned by Chevron, was purchased in 2008 by a con- glomerate known as Molycorp. Molycorp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015. NexGen Eying Major Athabasca Basin Uranium Mine Development NexGen Energy reported that positive re- sults from an independent initial prelimi- nary economic assessment (PEA) support planned development of a major new underground uranium mine on its Arrow deposit in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Ba- sin. The positive results are a function of a conventional long-hole stope mine plan to extract compact, near-vertical uranium mineralization localized in competent, crystalline basement rocks. Mine production would average 1,448 metric tons per day (mt/d) at an average head grade of 1.73% U 3 O 8 over the life of the mine. U 3 O 8 production would average 27.6 million pounds per year (lb/y) during the first five years of production and 18.5 million lb/y over a mine life of 14.4 years. Mine access would be via a man-mate- rials shaft and an internal decline. Pro- duction would be hoisted to surface in a separate production shaft. Preproduction capital costs to develop the Arrow mine are estimated at C$1.19 billion. Life-of-mine unit operating costs are estimated at C$8.37/lb of U 3 O 8 . An LHD dumps its load outside the Pamlico portal in Nevada.