Deep Reach Technology, Inc. Receives Extension to Contract with Army Research Lab to Investigate the Recovery of Critical Rare Earth Elements from the Deep Ocean

Houston, TX (USA) – August 17, 2015

Deep Reach Technology, Inc.  awarded $1.0M US by the Department of Defense for Cooperative Research of Ocean Recovery of Rare Earth Elements (REE) and other Strategic Minerals.  This is an extension of a previous award of $0.9MM in announced in June 2014 and extends the Cooperative Research for a second year.

A team led by Deep Reach Technology, Inc.  (DRT) has been awarded $1.0M in funding from the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL), part of the US Department of Defense (DOD), via a subaward agreement with Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

This is Year 2 of this cooperative research project. During the first year, DRT accomplished the following tasks:  Identified geographical focus areas for potential REE enriched sediments;  Improved knowledge of likely REE levels in REE-enriched sediments based on analysis of core samples acquired from oceanographic institutions;  Improved knowledge of processing/extraction; Initial economic analysis (CAPEX and OPEX models), sufficient to suggest favorable economics of mining sediments as a source for REEs.

According to the Scope of Work, during the second year, DRT shall refine REE recovery concepts (engineering drawings/throughput models and analyses), refine knowledge of chemical and physical properties of sediment, tailor an extraction process, refine CAPEX and OPEX estimates accordingly, begin engagement with regulatory organizations to better estimate the impact of licensing and permitting to development and operational timelines, and begin engagement with potential market (investors and consumers).