Search Minerals Receives Provincial Environment Assessment Notice, Announces Board Changes and Grant of Stock Options

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Search Minerals Inc. (“Search” or the “Company”) (TSXV:SMY), is pleased to provide a corporate update with some recent developments in the Company.

Environment Assessment Notice from Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

Search has received notice from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador (“Province”) confirming that the Foxtrot Project will require an environment assessment. Search has previously received notice from Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (the “CEAA”) in January 2018. With this notice, Search will receive further guidelines for the completion of an Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) from the Province. These guidelines will augment with the guidelines received from CEAA.

Greg Andrews, President & CEO states: “This notice by the CEAA and the Province are milestone events in the development of the Foxtrot Rare Earth Element Project in Southeastern Labrador. We look forward to the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement and working with all our current and future stakeholders in an open and transparent manner. The guidelines will provide Search with the requirements to initiate and coordinate the necessary environmental base line studies.”

Board Changes

Roberto Giannetti da Fonseca, a director of Search, since 2011, has resigned from the Company. Greg Andrews, states; “The Search Board of Directors would like to thank Roberto for his contributions during his time as a director with Search Minerals and wish Roberto the best in his future endeavours.”

Stock Options Grant

Search Minerals has granted, effective today, a total of 5,050,000 stock options to directors, officers, and consultants. All of the stock options are exercisable for a period of 42 months at a price of $ 0.08.

The options have been granted pursuant to the Company’s Stock Option Plan.

The issuance of the Options is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

About Search Minerals Inc.

Led by a proven management team and board of directors, Search is focused on finding and developing resources within the emerging Port Hope Simpson Critical Rare Earth Element (“CREE”) District of South East Labrador (the “District”). The Company controls a belt 70 km long and 8 km wide including its 100% interest in the FOXTROT Project which is road accessible and at tidewater. Exploration efforts have advanced “Deep Fox” and “Fox Meadow” as significant new CREE prospects very similar and in close proximity to the original FOXTROT discovery. While the Company has identified more than 20 other prospects in the District, its primary objective remains development of FOXTROT with the clearly demonstrated success of the proprietary processing technology at the pilot plant level and delineation of prospects that will ensure competitive-low cost production beyond the 14-year mine life contemplated in the preliminary economic assessment of FOXTROT completed in April 2016. The FOXTROT Project has a low capital cost to bring the initial project into production ($152 M), a short payback period and is scalable due to Search’s proprietary processing technology. The preliminary economic assessment is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. The preliminary economic assessment includes the results of an economic analysis of mineral resources. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.

All material information on the Company may be found on its website at www.searchminerals.ca and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About neo-CREOs (Adamas Intelligence – December 2016)

We consider neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium to be neo-CREOs and they are vital to NdFeB magnets used widely in renewable power generation, electric mobility, and energy-efficient technologies. We consider terbium to be a neo-CREO because upon experiencing shortages of dysprosium, consumers in the magnet industry will rapidly consume available terbium supplies in its place for applications involving renewable power generation, electric mobility and energy efficient technologies. Lanthanum is considered a neo-CREO because it is widely used in catalytic converters and rechargeable batteries, and will be increasingly used as a thermal stabilizer by producers of poly-vinyl chloride (PVC) to minimize lead consumption and improve the energy efficiency of PVC and other processing equipment.

For further information, please contact:

Greg Andrews
President and CEO
Tel: 604-998-3432
E-mail: info@searchminerals.ca

Neither the 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.

Cautionary Statement Regarding “Forward-Looking” Information.

This news release includes certain “forward-looking information” and “forward-looking statements” (collectively “forward-looking statements”) within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation, statements relating the future operating or financial performance of the Company, are forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as “expects”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “potential”, “possible”, and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results “will”, “may”, “could”, or “should” occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements in this news release relate to, among other things, advancement of the Company’s Foxtrot Project, environmental assessment results, results from public consultations, provincial studies and the completion of environmental studies. Actual future results may differ materially. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation, public consultations drastically change the Guidelines, the refusal of the provincial and federal government to cooperate during the assessment process and the results of the environmental assessment are not favourable to the Company. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these times. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change.