Private Wednesday SRE Minerals on Wednesday announced the discovery in North Korea of ??what is considered the largest rare earths deposit in the world.
SRE also signed a joint venture agreement with the Korean Natural Resources Trading Corporation on the rights to develop REE deposits at Jongju in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea over the next 25 years with a further renewal period of 25 years.
The joint venture, known as the Pacific Century Rare Earth Mineral Limited, based in the British Virgin Islands, also received permission to a processing plant in Jeonju, located about 150 km north-north-west of the capital Pyongyang.
The initial assessment of the target in Cheonju indicates a total mineralization potential of 6 billion tons with 216.2 million tons of rare earth oxides, including light REEs, such as lanthanum, cerium, and praseodymium; mainly britolite and associated rare earth minerals. Approximately 2.66% of 216.2 million tons are more valuable heavy rare earth elements.
According to Dr. Louis Schurmann, a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and a leading scientist in the project, the Jeonju deposit is the world's largest known REE phenomenon.
The 216 million tonnes Dzhondzhu deposit, theoretically costing trillions of dollars, will more than double the current world famous REE oxide resource, which, according to the US Geological Survey, is estimated at 110 million tonnes.
Minerals such as fluorite, apatite, zircon, nepheline, feldspar and ilmenite are considered as potential by-products in the extraction and extraction of rare-earth elements in Jeonju.
Further exploration is planned for March of next year, which will include 96,000 m (phase 1) and 120,000 m (phase 2) of core drilling, and the results will be reported in accordance with the Australian JORC Code, a standard for mineral disclosure Canada. 43-101.
