Searchlight Resources Inc. announced that the company has received the final report from the Saskatchewan Research Council ("SRC") on the preliminary beneficiation tests on a monazite-bearing rock sample from the Fanta Showing at Kulyk Lake, Saskatchewan. In the fall of 2022, Searchlight contracted the SRC to perform initial metallurgical bench-scale tests on a monazite-bearing rock sample from the Fanta Showing on the Kulyk Lake Critical Elements project. The objective was to determine if the sample could be concentrated to a commercial monazite concentrate.

The final report from SRC includes the following details on the Kulyk Lake sample: It contained 33.6% TREO and 7.3% CREO. The mineral composition is 19.7% Monazite, 6.4% Apatite, 5.8% Ilmenite, and 68.1% other silicate minerals. It is amenable to concentration by heavy liquid, electrostatic, magnetic separation, and flotation methods.

The coarse fraction size (greater than 0.053 mm) can be concentrated to +60% TREO by one or a combination of the beneficiation methods. Flotation of the fine size fraction (less than 0.053 mm) can be concentrated to 49.8-52.8% TREO with three cleaner stages of flotation. Recovery factors of 98% of the TREO and CREO were obtained from the coarse fraction sample, as well as up to 89% TREO and CREO from the fine fraction.

Notes on TREO and CREO TREO = Total Rare Earth Oxides = Ce2O3+Dy2O3+Er2O3+Eu2O3+Gd2O3+Ho2O3+La2O3+Nd2O3+Pr6O11+Sm2O3+Tb4O7+Yb2O3 CREO = Critical Rare Earth Oxides = Dy2O3+Nd2O3+Pr6O11+Tb4O7.