The Project is hosted within the Elk Creek Carbonatite. By definition a carbonatite is an igneous rock body with greater than 50% modal carbonate minerals, mainly in the form of calcite, dolomite, ankerite, or sodium- and potassium-bearing carbonates. Carbonatites commonly occur as intrusive bodies, such as isolated sills, dikes, or plugs, although rarely occur as extrusive rocks. Many carbonatites are associated with alkali silicate rocks (for example, syenite, nepheline syenite, ijolite, urtite, pyroxenite, etc.). Carbonatites are usually surrounded by an aureole of metasomatically altered rocks called fenites. Carbonatite-associated deposits can be classified as magmatic or metasomatic types (Richardson and Birkett, 1996).

The property hosts niobium, titanium, and scandium mineralization as well as REE and barium mineralization that occurs within the Elk Creek Carbonatite. The current known extents of the Carbonatite unit are approximately 950 m along strike, 300 m wide, and 750 m in dip extent, below the unconformity.

The deposit contains significant concentrations of niobium. Based on the metallurgical testwork completed to date at a number of laboratories using QEMSCAN® analysis, the niobium mineralization is known to be fine grained, and that 77% of the niobium occurs in the mineral pyrochlore, while the balance occurs in an iron-titanium-niobium oxide mineral of varying composition.

Within the Elk Creek Carbonatite a host of other elements exist with varying degrees of concentration. The Company has completed both whole rock analysis and multi-element analysis on all samples for the 2014 program, plus resampling of selected historical core/pulps between 2011 and 2014.

As the metallurgical testwork advanced during 2014 and 2015 the ability to obtain a titanium dioxide (TiO2) and scandium (Sc) product, became apparent. TiO2 is typically found to be related to the niobium grades with a range of between 3:1 to 4:1 found within the core of the deposit. The scandium mineralization does not directly correlate to niobium mineralization, but does show a grade increase with increasing niobium at low grades, but then a scatter of grades (on average considered higher grades 60 to 80 ppm, within the mdolCarb units.

Within the Elk Creek Carbonatite complex there are several occurrences of REE mineralization, including the Project. REE mineralization within the Carbonatite occurs within the following minerals:
• Bästnasite ([Ce,La,Y]CO3F);
• Parisite (Ca[Ce,La]2[CO3]3F2);
• Synchysite (Ca(Ce,La)[F|CO3]2); and
• Monazite ([Ce,La]PO4).

Mineralization is located approximately 200 to 1,000 m below the surface. Based on geomechanical information and mineralization geometry an underground longhole stoping method (LHS) is suitable for the deposit.

The stopes will be 15 m wide and stope length will vary based on mineralization grade. A spacing of 25 m between levels has been used. The deposit is mined in blocks where mining within a block occurs from bottom to top with the use of paste backfill. Sill pillars are left in situ between blocks. The backfill will have sufficient strength to allow for mining adjacent to filled stopes, thus eliminating the need for dip pillars.

The mine will be shaft access to minimize development through water bearing horizons. Mineralization will be transported from stopes to the shaft/hoist system by underground trucks. A single ventilation raise will serve as a dedicated exhaust raise and will be raisebored conventionally. Intake air will be down the shaft with fresh air entering a dedicated ventilation drift above the loading pocket. As levels are developed lower in the deposit short slot raises will be developed connecting levels for ventilation purposes.

The ferroniobium processing facility is designed with three distinct operation units: a mineral processing plant including a grinding circuit, designed to reduce the particle size prior to leaching; a hydrometallurgical plant (hydromet), designed to extract niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5), scandium oxide (Sc2O3), and titanium oxide (TiO2); and a pyrometallurgical plant (pyromet), designed to produce ferroniobium, an iron-niobium alloy.

The RoM ore will be crushed underground in a primary crusher, and the crushed product with a top size of 203 mm and characteristic size (P80) of 115 mm, will be delivered to the crushed ore bin located at the surface. The ore from the bin will be reclaimed by three vibrating feeders with a total capacity of 136 t/h and passed on to the secondary crusher circuit via the secondary crusher screen feed conveyor.

At the secondary crushing stage, the ore will be sized on a dry, double deck screen with a top deck aperture size of 50 mm and botto ........