Excavation & Crushing At The Cowboy State Mine

DENVER, CO – American Rare Earths through its subsidiary Wyoming Rare (USA) Inc. (WRI), has successfully completed excavation and primary crushing of approximately 3,080 tonnes of rare earth ore from a test mine at the Cowboy State Mine (CSM), part of the Halleck Creek deposit, under its License to Explore by Dozing. Weathered surface material was blasted, excavated and stockpiled adjacent to the test pit. The underlying non-weathered Halleck Creek ore was then blasted, excavated, crushed and stockpiled. Four bulk samples of ore, totaling approximately 13.7 tonnes, were collected and dispatched for comminution testing and additional process optimization work2. The remainder of the extracted ore will be stockpiled at the CSM site and the Western Research Institute in Laramie, Wyoming. This ore stockpile will be used as the feedstock for a demonstration plant.

The goal of the comminution testing is to assess different milling methods to minimize the volume of fines generated. Reducing the proportion of fines entering the beneficiation process (i.e., ore upgrading) will enhance overall rare earths recoveries across the entire mineral processing circuit, thereby improving the economic outcomes of the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS).

Local contractors are now backfilling the excavated area with the altered surface material from the first blast. They will then replace the stockpiled topsoil and perform preliminary seeding to reclaim the area.

The test mining will also provide data to validate technical assumptions in the PFS, including drill penetration rates, blast fragmentation profiles and excavation efficiency.