The American Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: ARR) share price opened higher on Tuesday after the company announced a substantial increase in rare earth grades at its La Paz Rare Earths project.
Its shares shot up 8% to 15.5 cents just after opening before settling to 14.5 cents at the time of writing.
American Rare Earths reveals triple digit increase in grades
American Rare Earths announced the results of its total rare earth elements (TREE) concentration testing of surface samples from the La Paz project in Arizona this morning.
The company said the preliminary test work demonstrates that ore from La Paz can be effectively concentrated using magnetic separation, selective grinding and direct rare earth flotation.
The preliminary test work shows that plant feed material could be reduced by 76.3% while recovering 74.7% of the available TREE and 43.8% of the available scandium.
The company observed that TREE grades would increase from 552 parts per million (ppm) to 1.774 ppm, an increase of 216%. Scandium grades had also increased from 16 ppm to 30.4 ppm, an increase of 90%.
In response to the pleasing results, the announcement said that "increasing grade and reducing ore mass is a very promising economic outcome".
Management commentary
American Rare Earths Managing Director Keith Middleton hailed the results, saying:
ARR is extremely pleased with the preliminary test results at La Paz. These results demonstrate that ore material from La Paz can be effectively concentrated using proven technologies. Reducing ore material by 76% while recovering nearly 75% of TREE, with a 216% increase in TREE grade, is an important step in the technical evaluation of La Paz, where we plan to deliver, low-cost rare earth elements, for the US domestic and military supply chain
About the American Rare Earths share price
American Rare Earths entered into the US rare earths market in 2019 following the acquisition of the La Paz project.
The company's shares surged more than 200% between 5 and 7 October last year, when a new US Presidential Executive Order was released declaring a "national emergency" to increase related mining and processing capacity of critical metals.
More recently, the American Rare Earths share price has surged 88% in August, thanks to a triple-digit surge in indicated resource estimates at La Paz.
