Manufacturers of high tech gadgets that use rare earths are in for more good news as Canadian miner Matamec Explorations Inc. announced on Wednesday the mineral processing and hydrometallurgical pilot plants needed to jumpstart the operations on its flagship Kipawa rare earth project are on schedule.

Matamec Explorations Inc. said it is now ready to carry out the operations of the two plants middle of 2012, as per schedule.

"We continue to be excited by the on-going progress of the metallurgical development for Kipawa," André Gauthier, president of Matamec Explorations Inc., said in a statement.

"We are eager to validate our simple, low-cost and robust metallurgical flowsheet in the upcoming pilot plant tests to produce a high purity, heavy rare earths-enriched product. The pilot plants will be a major milestone in our drive to bring the Kipawa project to production."

A junior miner, Matamec Explorations Inc. is committed in developing the Kipawa deposit for rare earths yttrium, zirconium, niobium, and tantalum.

The pilot plant studies will test the two-step Kipawa rare earths element (REE) extraction process with a larger sample.

The mineral processing pilot plant, scheduled to start at end of May, will crush and grind the Kipawa ore to a target size, followed by 2 stages of magnetic separation, Matamec Explorations Inc. explained. The important magnetic separation step is needed to upgrade the percentage REE of the ore by 2.5 times, into one-third of the original feed mass.

Fifteen tonnes of ore have been prepared as feed for the pilot plant. It is expected to produce 5 tonnes of mineral concentrate.

The hydrometallurgical pilot plant will treat the mineral concentrate. It will undertake several processes to generate a purified mixed rare earth concentrate as a final product.

Matamec Explorations Inc. also explores for gold, base metals and platinum group metals. Its gold portfolio include the Matheson JV property located in Timmins, Ontario.

In Quebec, Matamec Explorations Inc. explores for lithium and tantalum on its Tansim property and for precious and base metals on its Sakami, Valmont and Vulcain properties.

Read more:

Australia Eyes Germany, France, UK As Potential Rare Earths Export Targets