Canadian minerals exploration company Avalon Advanced Materials has set its sights on a closed coal mine site in the US state of Illinois, where geochemical sampling has found elevated levels of rare-earth elements (REE) and other metallic elements, such as cobalt, nickel, lithium, manganese and zinc in waste materials.
The company has signed a binding letter of intent with a private US firm Coal Strategy Advisors (CSA) to earn an up to 50% interest in the Will Scarlett rare-earths recovery project, near Marion.