Rare Earth Minerals (LSE: REM)this morning announced thatthe analysis of samples taken during the recent exploration programme on its Greenland exploration licenses has confirmeda new discovery of rare earth elements (REE) near Narsarsuaq in southern Greenland. The Greenland exploration licences are 100% owned by REM.
The company said that the results from the 16 samples re-submitted for analysis exceeded its expectations, with five of them exceeding 7,000 ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO) and another two exceeding 2,000 ppm TREO. The highest result was just over 18,000 ppm TREO. There were three significant neodymium oxide (Nd2O3) assays, with values ranging from1,446 ppm to2,928 ppm.
The analysis so far has been conducted onout-crop, sub-crop and float samples, and REM says it will be interpreting the results to determinethe scope of further field workand to identify apossible source for the highly anomalous REE results.
Commenting on the announcement CEO Kiran Morzariasaid:
The discovery of a new Rare Earth Element deposit east of the world class Kvanefjeld REE project is significant for REM. These assay results are orders of magnitude higher than those previously reported and are indeed higher than the reported resource grades on the nearby Tanbreez deposit. In addition some of these samples contain significant quantities of neodymium oxide, which is a critical rare earth oxide or CREO as defined by the US department of energy. This along with the proximity of these results to two of the worlds largest REE deposits, is very encouraging indeed.
At 0.913p, and despite the positive news, REMs share price is currently down 6.35% in trading so far today. But even withthis mornings fall REM is up 7.2% on this time last year, during which time the FTSE All-Share index has fallen 2.6%. And over five years REM has gained 140%, compared with a 13% rise in the FTSE All-Share.
But, like many small exploration and mining companies, REM is not for the faint-heartedand its share price has experienced some phenomenal volatility. In those past five yearsREMs share price has seen a fall of 97% (between the start of 2011 and mid-2013) anda rise of 1,900% (in August 2013) fine if you were in for the long term, and spectacular if you bought and sold at the right time, but potentially ruinous if you didnt.
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Jon Wallis has no position in any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.