Texas Rare Earth Resources and K-Technologies Sign Definitive Agreement to Form Rare Earth Processing Technology Joint Venture
SIERRA BLANCA, TX--(Marketwired - Jul 17, 2015) - Texas Rare Earth Resources Corp. (OTCQX: TRER)
- JV Plans to Market Rare Earth Separation and Purification Technology on a Worldwide Basis
- Currently Evaluating Several Opportunities Globally
Texas Rare Earth Resources Corp. (TRER), an exploration company targeting the heavy rare earths, and K-Technologies, Inc. (K-Tech), a chemical process development and applications company serving the minerals and chemicals industries, announced today they have finalized the terms of a joint venture to develop, refine and market K-Tech's Continuous Ion Exchange (CIX) and Continuous Ion Chromatography (CIC) technology as it applies mostly to the extraction of rare earth elements (REE) from native ores (the "Technology"). The JV will license the Technology to TRER, as well as other rare earth production companies. The JV may also elect to build and operate processing facilities to separate and purify mixed rare earth concentrates into individual purified rare earth oxides for other rare earth production companies in addition to TRER.
Major terms Include:
1. Following TRER meeting its $7 million funding obligation for development of the Technology, K-Tech will own 50.1% of the JV and TRER will own 49.9%
2. K-Tech has provided an exclusive royalty free perpetual license of the CIX/CIC Technology to the JV for the production of rare earths and other related products of value.
3. A board of managers will oversee the JV's operations and will consist of one manager appointed by K-Tech, one manager appointed by TRER and a mutually-agreed upon outside manager.
4. The JV will provide a perpetual license of the CIX/CIC Technology to TRER for use in its own development projects, including the Round Top project, for a one-time license fee of $5 million payable upon plant start-up.
K-Tech has recently used their CIX and CIC process to create a mid/heavy readily marketable rare earth concentrate for TRER and is in the process of creating high purity fully separated rare earth oxides. In the past K-Tech has used their process to treat REE leach solutions from ores such as monazite and bastnaesite to produce separated REE products at the bench-scale and pilot plant level. They have also recovered REE materials from phosphoric acid solutions at bench levels. Historically the rare earth industry has used solvent extraction (SX) technology to produce individually purified rare earth products. The advantages to using K-Tech CIX/CIC technology instead of SX are likely many. Potential lower CAPEX and OPEX are the most significant but the simplicity of the operation, smaller footprint, lack of large amounts of petroleum-based solvents, and the overall mitigation of safety and environmental risks are significant de-risking factors with this process.
Tom Baroody and Wes Berry, principal owners and officers of K-Tech, together have over 80 years' experience in the minerals, chemicals and biofuels industries. Between them they hold 26 U.S. and foreign patents, and 5 more are in the application phase.
Dan Gorski, TRER CEO, commented, "We are honored to be able to make this association with K-Tech. Work done to date has convinced us that CIX-CIC technology represents a significant advance in rare earth processing and that the simplicity and efficiency of the process has the potential to make Round Top cost competitive with the Chinese."
Tom Baroody, K-Tech CEO, further commented: "We are excited to join hands with TRER in applying our CIX/CIC technology with a domestic company that has a truly great mineral ore body, which is particularly rich in heavy rare earths. We also look forward to working with them in providing this technology to other rare earth projects around the world."
About Texas Rare Earth Resources Corp.
Texas Rare Earth Resources Corp.'s primary focus is exploring and, if warranted, developing its Round Top rare earth minerals project located in Hudspeth County, Texas, 85 miles east of El Paso. The Company's common stock trades on the OTCQX U.S. tier under the symbol "TRER."
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including, but not limited to, statements regarding potential marketing of the Technology globally and the success of such marketing, licensing of the Technology to other rare earth production companies, future development of the Technology and successful completion of such development, TRER meeting its funding obligations to earn 49.9% of the JV, payment by TRER of the one-time $5 million licensing fee to obtain a perpetual license to the Technology, the likely advantages of the Technology compared to SX processing, including potentially lower CAPEX and OPEX, the potential of the Technology to make Round Top cost competitive with the Chinese, potential development of the Round Top project and other similar statements. When used in this press release, the words "potential," "indicate," "expect," "intend," "hopes," "believe," "may," "will," "if, "anticipate," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to the development of the Technology, risks related to the marketing of the Technology, risks related to changes in future operating costs and working capital balance, risks related to mining results not matching preliminary tests and risks related to the ability of TRER to raise adequate working capital and continue as a going concern, as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's latest annual report on Form 10-K, as filed on November 12, 2014, and other documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements.
Contact
Company Contact:
Texas Rare Earth Resources Corp.
Anthony Marchese
Chairman
E-mail: Email Contact