Rare-Earth Element Potential in Alberta

Rare earth elements have a wide range of uses in advanced technological applications and have been included in the critical minerals lists of many countries as a result. In Alberta, there are a number of deposit types and occurrences with anomalous to prospective rare-earth elements, including metalliferous black shales, granite and pegmatite intrusions, and phosphates. In addition, several waste streams from oil sands processing and coal burning have concentrated rare-earth elements beyond the original composition of the ore. For example, the Birch Mountains metalliferous black shales contain a recoverable inferred resource of 534.1 Kt of total rare earth oxides. Additionally, oil sands processing can concentrate between 43.4 to 72.4 Kt of monazite, a rare-earth element-bearing mineral, in the froth treatment tailings across all oil sands operations per year. 
This work was completed under the Mineral Grant provided by the Government of Alberta dated June 22,
2021.