Shares in Rare Earth Minerals (LON:REM) nudged north as it marked another milestone at the Yangibana project in Australia - the granting of a mining lease.
REM bought a 30% free carried interest to bankable feasibility study in the project four years ago and its partner with 70% is owner and operator Hastings Rare Metals (ASX:HAS).
The mining lease from the authorities covers 1,469.8 hectares and contains the following deposits - Yangibana North, Gossan, Lion's Ear, Hook and Kane's Gossan.
As reported previously, the project already plays host to 3.46mln tonnes at 1.73% TREO (total rare earth oxides) of indicated and inferred resource.
The biggest deposit is Yangibana North, which has JORC Indicated Resources of 2.73 million tonnes at 1.75% TREO.
Notably, Rare Earth reported a commodity price update has also resulted in a significant increase in the value of the in-ground mineralisation to US$646/tonne from US$456/tonne - a rise of 42%.
Work is continuing towards gaining the relevant permits and approvals in line with the pre-feasibility study, the firm added.
David Lenigas, the chairman of REM, said: "The granting of the Mining Lease at Yangibana Main represents one of the critical milestones for the project, we look forward to results from the ongoing resource drilling and metallurgical test work and the completion of the Pre-Feasibility Study."
Shares in REM added 2.19% to stand at 0.935p.