EMC Signs Option Agreement to Acquire Former Scandium Production Site In Utah, USA

TSX:EMC
www.emcmetals.com

VANCOUVER, Sept. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - EMC Metals Corp. (the "Company" or "EMC") (TSX:EMC) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an option agreement with Mineral Exploration Services LLC of Reno, Nevada, pursuant to which EMC has an option to earn a 100% interest in a patented mining claim and former scandium property, known as The Little Green Monster, near the town of Fairfield, Utah.  The property represents a high-grade scandium phosphate exploration target, is the site of a historical small underground scandium mining operation, and has been a popular collecting site with hobbyists seeking rare and semi-precious phosphate minerals, including the scandium phosphate mineral kolbeckite [ScPO4-2H2O], for over a century.

Highlights

• Property is the site of brief scandium resource mining in 1950's,
• EMC has secured an option to acquire 100% of the property,
• EMC has staked 42 mining claims adjacent to the property,
• Access to historic mine workings  enables immediate sampling, and
• Option rights were secured with payments totalling US$380,000, over 3 years.

Current Status - Fairfield Scandium Project

EMC now holds an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Little Green Monster patented claim, and has staked an additional 42 claims in areas of interest surrounding the core property and site of historical activity. The Company has concurrently applied for and been granted an exploration permit by State authorities, and has located and excavated the old mine entrance.  Additionally, the mine has been accessed, samples have been collected from various locations inside the mine, samples have been shipped, and await assay by ALS Minerals Laboratory in Vancouver, BC, Canada.  Some limited surface trenching work has also been undertaken. Encouraging sampling assay results can be expected to quickly lead to drill testing on the dimensions of the prospect.

Click here for a map of the Fairfield property area and to view photos of the property: http://www.emcmetals.com/s/Update.asp?ReportID=478379

Property History

Fairfield, Utah has long been recognized by mineral specimen collectors as a source of unusual variscite [AlPO4-2H2O] mineral nodules, which are typically slabbed, polished and displayed in mineral cabinets and museums.  The mine producing area was known generally as the Clay Canyon Variscite Mine, and was established as far back as the late 1880's.  The site was prospected for variscite nodules for the next 40 years.  In 1937, the specific mineral claim was renamed the Little Green Monster, and the existing mine workings were extended by Arthur Montgomery and Ed Over, two ardent collectors who continued to produce specimens which they offered for sale.

Scandium bearing minerals were first identified in 1940, in association with variscite nodules, but commercial interest in kolbeckite as a primary source of scandium mineralization did not begin until 1959. At this time, the Kawecki Chemical Company (Boyerstown, Pa.) backed exploration work from Ed Over and others, who shipped two samples of phosphate bearing material totalling over 4,300 pounds, to a Kawecki facility at Boyerstown.  Grades in these two sample batches were reported to average 0.14% and 0.10% scandium by weight (equivalent to 1,000-1,400 ppm)*, based on information later published in the American Mineralogist in 1968 (Scandium content of some aluminum phosphates, Clifford Frondel, J. Ito, and Arthur Montgomery, volume 53, pp 1,223-1,231).  Kawecki Chemical Company worked for a time on refining techniques, and for reasons unknown, was not sufficiently satisfied with their results to maintain their interest.  The property changed hands several more times in the ensuing years and the old mine workings were bulldozed shut in a reclamation effort, sometime in the 1990's.

*NOTE:  These previously published sample assay grades were established in 1959, therefore are historical in nature, and there is no way to verify these assay results.  Consequently these historic assay results should not be relied upon by the reader as accurate estimates of resource grades.

Pictures of the historic mine workings can be found on our website at www.emcmetals.com.

Mr. Willem Duyvesteyn, Chief Technology Officer of EMC comments:

"The Fairfield Scandium property represents a relatively high-grade scandium exploration target for EMC.  The history of this property is a compelling story as we seek additional scandium resources, and the association of scandium with phosphate minerals here represents a new and potentially exciting scandium deposit type."

Mr. George Putnam, CEO of EMC comments:

"The Company continues to expand its portfolio of high-quality scandium exploration targets around the world.  The Fairfield property represents our first scandium exploration target in the US, and is well-located on private, patented mining ground, lying near established infrastructure within a historic mining district.  The history on the property, the nature of the historical scandium occurrences, and the recovery possibilities due to mineralogy, all support our enthusiasm for this prospect."

About EMC Metals

EMC's high-priority development opportunity is the Nyngan Scandium joint venture with Jervois Mining Limited of Melbourne, Australia.  The Nyngan Scandium Project has a National Instrument ("NI") 43-101 measured and indicated resource estimate of 12 million tonnes, grading 261 ppm Sc, based on a cut-off grade of 100 ppm Sc ("NI 43-101 Technical Report on Nyngan Scandium, Jervois Mining Limited, Nyngan, New South Wales, Australia", March 25, 2010).

EMC also holds the Springer Tungsten property in Nevada, USA, and the Carlin Vanadium property near Carlin, Nevada.  Both properties have current NI 43-101 compliant resource estimates, available on the Company website and on SEDAR.

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed by Willem Duyvesteyn, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Duyvesteyn is employed by EMC Metals.

No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

This press release contains forward-looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information can include without limitation statements based on current expectations involving a number of risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. Specifically, while we are in the process of obtaining an independent feasibility study on our Nyngan project, until such report is available and demonstrates positive feasibility of the project, readers should not assume that the project is economically feasible.  In addition, a production decision involves numerous risks, including financing of the project, market demand and market price fluctuations for scandium produced and/or processed by us and other standard and usual risks of a mining operation.  In regards to our exploration activities described in this press release, there is no guarantee that we will identify suitable targets for drilling, or that results of drilling will merit further exploration.  In addition, our exploration activities are subject to available funding, which may require that we raise capital by equity based financing, the success of which we cannot predict.  Accordingly, forward-looking information in this press release is based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice, and by other risk factors disclosed in our public filings. Except as required by law, EMC assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change.

Certain terms used in this news release are used in accordance with the requirements of the securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of U.S. securities laws.  Canadian requirements differ significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), and resource information contained herein may not be comparable to similar information disclosed by U.S. companies.  Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the term "resource" does not equate to the term "reserves".  The requirements of NI 43-101 for identification of "reserves" are not the same as those of the SEC, and reserves reported in compliance with NI 43-101 may not qualify as "reserves" under SEC standards.  The SEC's disclosure standards normally do not recognize information concerning "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" or "inferred mineral resources" or other descriptions of the amount of mineralization in mineral deposits that do not constitute "reserves" by U.S. standards in documents filed with the SEC.  In addition, resources that are classified as "inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility.  It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an "inferred mineral resource" will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimated "inferred mineral resources" may not generally form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies.  Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an "inferred mineral resource" exists or is economically or legally mineable.  Disclosure of "contained ounces" in a resource is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations, however, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute "reserves" by SEC standards as in-place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures.  Accordingly, information concerning mineral deposits set forth herein may not be comparable with information presented by companies using only U.S. standards in their public disclosure.

SOURCE EMC Metals Corp.