Premier Scott Moe鈥檚 recent announcement of $31 million in funding to assist the Saskatchewan Research Council to build a rare earth (REE) processing facility in Saskatoon appears to be political folly geared to feed the narrative of the upcoming election.
The planned facility is to be operational by 2023, but there are no REE mines in Saskatchewan that will be able to provide feedstock to this facility.
In 2014, there were 14 rare earth mining projects across Canada expected to be operational within five years. Not a single one ever came to fruition thanks to lack of investment capital projects 小蓝视频 located in areas with no road/power infrastructure and prohibitive environmental restrictions.
In fact, one of these projects was owned by Saskatoon-based Great Western Minerals who tried unsuccessfully for 10 years to advance its Hoidas Lake REE project located 50 kms from Uranium City, Saskatchewan.
Now the cycle is repeating itself with news that Toronto-based Appia Resources is working on its Alces Lake project located 34 kms east of Uranium City. The project area is lacking in access roads, power and other infrastructure.
To date, little activity has been incurred to quantitatively delineate a rare earth ore body. Piecing together bits of old data, it can be surmised that there probably could be an economic deposit in the area.
As a past VP and CEO of two junior mineral exploration companies in Canada, I fully know the time frame from ore body probability to working mine is in the order of 10 years. Appia Resources has a long road ahead of it to bring a mine into 小蓝视频 in Saskatchewan. If 14 other REE projects in Canada (as identified in 2014) have now all failed to reach completion, it appears doubtful that Appia will suddenly rise to success. This doubt is compounded when one looks at Appia鈥檚 Q2 2020 financials which reveal precious little working capital for exploration activity and a senior management group that likes to use shareholder money to pay itself extraordinary wages.
China currently produces 90 per cent of the world鈥檚 rare earth minerals and that reality is unlikely to change any time soon. Premier Scott Moe鈥檚 announcement of funding for a rare earth processing facility in Saskatoon appears misguided and nothing more than a talking point to help him through the upcoming election.
Malcolm Bucholtz
Mossbank, Saskatchewan
