Defense Metals Corp. is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the development of its 100% owned Wicheeda Rare Earth Element Deposit located near Prince George, British Columbia, Canada.
Wicheeda is a 100% owned, BC-based, high quality, open-pit rare earth asset at the pre-feasibility study stage (due in Q2), accessible by road, nearby rail, power, gas, and a major deep sea port. The company has $7m in the bank as of September, and as of August of this year had a resource estimate showing 27.8 million tonnes indicated, 11.1 million inferred.
The Company’s most recent NI 43-101 report shows there’s 6.4 million tonnes of measured resources and another 27.8 million tonnes of indicated resources, close to surface, and that the grades are decent, means the money, time, effort, and work done on the Wicheeda to this point has been a tremendous success. DEFN has de-risked the property exactly as you’d hope (so far), but some risk remains.
For a breakdown of the fundamentals and the Defense Metals story, check out Chris Parry’s recent article on the Company.
Today, Defense Metals announced the Q4-2023 execution of a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSXV: UCU) to explore collaborative opportunities as both companies move towards their respective commercialization efforts for a North American rare earth element supply chain. As one of the first projects under this MOU, Defense Metals will ship a mixed rare earth carbonate sample from its Wicheeda REE project to Ucore’s Kingston, Ontario, RapidSX™ Commercialization and Demonstration Facility.
This sample was generated during 2023 hydrometallurgical piloting test work performed on concentrate produced by earlier flotation pilot plant testing of a 26-tonne bulk sample from Defense Metals’ wholly-owned Wicheeda REE project in British Columbia.
Craig Taylor, CEO of Defense Metals, commented:
“We expect to ship a mixed rare earth carbonate sample in the next few weeks to Ucore’s demonstration plant for testing. The Wicheeda project is being developed as a viable source of REE from North America and as more processing and separation facilities become operational in the future, the demand for REE feedstock will be increasingly important. This MOU with Ucore is a further step in that direction to be part of the Western world’s REE supply chain.”
The stock is currently flat at time of writing on today’s news.
Recently, the stock confirmed a very strong breakout. A wedge/channel was broken which ended the current downtrend. The stock is set to go from lower highs and lower lows, to making higher highs and higher lows. The first higher low could be forming around the $0.20 zone.
The stock did pullback to retest the large gap zone and was very close to the trendline it broke. As long as the stock remains above $0.18, the new uptrend is in play. Watch for a break above $0.28 to confirm the first higher low in a new uptrend.
