Id Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc. announced the discovery of 23.5% total rare earth elements (TREE) in a sample taken from the Company's Mineral Hill Project in Lemhi County, Idaho. The Mineral Hill rare earth elements (REE) project is comprised of approximately 2,000 acres situated in the northern portion of the Idaho REE-Th Belt. The project includes four distinct REE occurrences known as Lower Roberts, Upper Roberts, Lower Lee Buck, and the newly added Phyllis Gross claim group.

The target of the Company's latest exploration program at Mineral Hill was to locate and sample a previously reported REE sample from 1954 which reported 21.5% TREEs. The sample was initially reported in a thesis by Fred Sturm (University of Idaho) and then again by Agatin Abbott (Id Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology). Sturm's report describes the occurrence as "an individual mass of monazite greater than any other exposed through the region".

After reviewing the two historic reports, IDR geologists located and sampled Sturm and Abbott's monazite occurrence and assay results for sample 98241 showed 23.5% TREEs, confirming the accuracy of the historic work the Company is building upon while providing ample support for the original decision to focus on this area overall. IDR geologists describe the monazite mass as a 10 centimeter (4-inch) thick, pale-yellow sandy seam enveloped by two distinct carbonatites (Photo 1). The total width of the carbonatites and seam is 0.85 meters (2.5 feet).

The hanging wall carbonatite body is greenish colored with large crystals of ilmenite. The footwall side of the monazite seam is brightly colored, red-brown to orange-brown, crystalline carbonatite that assays 7.5% TREE. Equally as impressive as the overall grade, is the favorable mix of REEs.

As indicated in the table above, the more valuable rare earths used in magnet applications, such as neodymium (Nd) and praseodymium (Pr), compose approximately 16.23% of the total reported rare earth elements. Given the favorable mix of individual rare earth elements and the impressive overall TREE grade, IDR plans to send the sample out for additional metallurgical testing, including flotation, gravity, and magnetic separation techniques - and possibly other recovery and/or separation techniques being studied.