Canadian Rare Earths Miner Sets Second Mine in Kenya

With rare earths getting more controversial, what with last week's gung ho complaint filing of economic leaders U.S., the European Union and Japan against China before the World Trade Organization (WTO) because of its supply restrictions of the precious metal, Canadian-based rare earths miner Pacific Wildcat Resources Corp. could just be in the nick of time as it announced of a potential second mine in Kenya this year.

In a statement, Pacific Wildcat Resources Corp. said it will start drilling its second site at Kenya after tests established and confirmed the presence of high grade rare earths deposits on Kiruku Hill.

Kiruku Hill is located three kilometers away from its existing niobium and rare earth project site at Mrima Hill near the port city of Mombasa, Kenya.

"The results have further confirmed the prospectivity of Kiruku Hill for rare earth mineralization. Planning is underway to undertake initial exploratory drilling at Kiruku Hill this year," Darren Townsend, president of Pacific Wildcat Resources Corp., said in the statement.

Rare earths are 17 precious elements used to support the invention and manufacture of a number of high tech and environmental protection industries, such as highly specialised miniature nuclear batteries, laser repeaters, super conductors and miniature magnets.

Contrary to its name, rare earths can actually be found throughout the earth's crust. However, the 17 elements, abundant as the case may be, requires refinement, as all mining activities do, requiring several steps of chemical refinement to separate the ore.

Last week, the U.S., the European Union and Japan lodged a complaint before the WTO against China, the world's stronghold of rare earths supply.

The three economic powers want China to remove its self-restrictions on rare earths because it hurts global producers and consumers.

China controls 97 per cent of the world's rare earth supplies.