Expansion Of The High-Grade Roberts Rare Earth Element Land Package

COEUR D’ALENE, ID  – New Jersey Mining Company reported the extensive expansion of its Roberts Rare Earth Element (REE) project in Central Idaho. The Roberts REE land package now totals 63 un-patented claims covering 1,051 acres, almost 5-times its original size. The Roberts REE project is located in the Mineral Hill mining district in Lemhi County, Idaho. The district is notable for the dozens of REE prospects that occur along a northwest trending belt which is approximately 1.5 miles wide and 10 miles long. Historic reports and sampling have shown total rare earth element concentrations are strongest in the southeast portion of the belt, where the NJMC claim block is located and additional exploration/analysis is planned.

The Roberts has two carbonatite prospects with REE mineralization, the “Upper Roberts” and the “Lower Roberts”, which are located about 500 meters apart. The Upper Roberts outcrops along a northwest strike for greater than 400 meters and demonstrates remarkable high-grade REE mineralization in a number of surface samples. For instance, one NJMC sample has greater than 12% total rare earth elements – including 50,000 parts per million (ppm) cerium (5.0%), 48,100 ppm lanthanum (4.8%), 16,700 ppm neodymium (1.67%), 5,000 ppm praseodymium (0.5%), 1,090 ppm samarium (0.11%) and 178 ppm europium (0.02%). Besides the presence of rare earth elements at both the Upper Roberts and Lower Roberts, NJMC sampling has found very strong niobium mineralization, with the highest value samples from the Upper Roberts assaying 4,450 ppm (0.45%) niobium and samples from the Lower Roberts assaying 3,210 ppm (0.32%) niobium. In addition to these recognized carbonatites at Roberts, our new land package now encompasses the Lower Lee Buck and other significant REE occurrences in the Squaw Creek area.

VP Exploration, Rob Morgan, said, “As evidenced through our surface sampling, the Roberts and our other REE prospects in the Mineral Hill district have shown grades that exceed many of the rare earth oxide values being reported at several world class rare-earth deposits. We believe these well-documented Idaho REE holdings have the potential to contribute to our future domestic needs for rare earth elements and other critical minerals.”

The Mineral Hill district began as a gold district, which is supported by NJMC surface sampling results showing gold values of up to 8.8 grams per tonne (gpt) gold. The discovery of critical minerals in the area occurred in 1952 when ilmenorutile (a titanium, niobium iron-bearing oxide) and monazite (a rare-earth thorium phosphate) were originally identified by the Idaho Geological Survey and U.S. Geologic Survey.

President and CEO, John Swallow, said, “The sizeable expansion of our high-grade Roberts REE project fits perfectly into our Idaho-based “common denominator” business approach. We built gold exploration/gold production and real estate ownership (in Idaho) as hard asset stores of value and possess an early-mover/high quality seat at the table with regard to our rare earth element projects (also in Idaho) as we look toward the rare earth element building blocks required of a low-carbon future.”