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Message: The REE Connection? Qs for Dr. Marsh

I sent this post independently to BCU management and their reply is below. (I did find it a bit strange that Agoracom did nothing in this regard. So much for this board's "role" in liasing shareholders queries and concerns to management!)

At any rate, the reply from Brian Leeners:

Great question.

Our opinion is that REE’s will have limited effect as a catalyst for the copper price going forward based on the following.

Even though porphyry copper deposits are much enriched in LREEs (light rare earth elements, e.g. lanthanum, cerium, and neodymium), they just aren’t enriched enough compared to a good old fashioned carbonatitic or alkaline intrusive REE resource to compete on an economic basis. If one believes that REE are headed higher, these are the kinds of deposits to look for not porphyry copper deposits.

Also, within the current production system, the folks who get credit for the selenium and tellurium are the smelters. Because these products are a by-product, this relationship is not price sensitive as it is based on where the parties are situated in the production process. These metals are not found in coarse-grained minerals that one could separate physically but rather are atomic-level substitutions in common sulfide minerals like pyrite or chalcopyrite requiring a smelter. Only by purifying many tons of these sulfide minerals in a smelter do you end up with marketable quantities of selenium or tellurium.

All the Best;

Bell Copper Corporation

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