Japan Rare Earths Appoints Daniel McCann as Head of Exploration

SHINJUKU-KU, Japan - Feb. 27, 2014 - PRLog -- Mr. McCann takes over the senior exploration role from Darren Little who has served Japan Rare Earths in that capacity since 2008.

Japan Rare Earths Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Taimu Kawano said: "We are very pleased to have Daniel join our team as Head of Exploration.  Daniel brings extensive experience as a geologist, geophysicist, exploration manager and company executive. He has a proven record working with teams on major discoveries in locations including Penasquito, Mexico; Whistler, Alaska; and Lindero, Argentina," he said.  "I'd like to thank Darren Little for his years of service and contributions to Japan Rare Earths".

Most recently Mr. McCann served as Senior Analyst with gold exploration in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Mr. McCann started his career working for major mining companies as a geophysicist searching for sediment hosted gold deposits in the Great Basin, where he was geophysicist and exploration manager for North American projects, and later country manager of Argentina and Bolivia.

http://japanrareearths.com/deep_sea_deposits.html

He has also served as a consultant for senior producers. Mr. McCann has a Master of Science in Geophysics from the University of Utah, and Bachelor of Science degrees in Geology and Physics from Southern Oregon University.

http://japanrareearths.com/our_company.html

Japan Rare Earths is a rare earth mining and recycling company based in Tokyo, Japan. Japan Rare Earths has a dual operational focus for the extraction of rare earth metals, developing leading edge technologies for both deep sea mineral extraction and recycling of rare earths from end of use applications.

Rare earth metals are fundamental to many modern technologies and play a prominent role in some of the most topical social trends; the advancement of digital technology and its miniaturization, reducing consumer energy consumption and pollution levels and enabling cleaner sources of energy production. They are also instrumental to modern advances in the aerospace and defense industries.

Japan Rare Earths have negotiated the development and extraction rights for a 3 square kilometer section of rare earth deposits discovered on the Pacific Ocean floor near the uninhabited Japanese island of Minamitorishima, which lies around 1,800 kilometers to the southeast of Tokyo. The deposit, which resides within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, is estimated to contain 6.8 million tons of rare earths, enough to meet Japan’s growing demand for more than 200 years.

Japan Rare Earths, building upon the experience and the well-developed technologies of the oil and gas industry, hope to begin meaningful extraction of rare earths from the site before the end of 2016.

Japan Rare Earths is also committed to the recovery of previously used rare earth metals and has applied existing and developed new proprietary processes to recycle rare earths from waste products such as energy saving light bulbs, magnets, computers, air conditioners and batteries.

According to recent Japan Rare Earths data, only around one percent of all rare earth metals are currently being recycled, despite a significant amount of their applications being suitable for recovery. Increasing recycling rates results in less dependence on foreign, self-interested suppliers and helps to reduce overall costs.