Canada Rare Earth Corp. said Oct. 17 that it entered into a nonbinding letter of intent to form a joint venture with the undisclosed owners of an advanced, prospective rare earth property in South America.

Under the deal, the joint venture partner will prepare permit applications for mining and processing ore from the property while the company will finalize an existing and proven processing technology and system to optimize the processing of material from the property.

Once the processing system is agreed upon before Dec. 10, the parties will finalize a definitive agreement incorporating and expanding on the terms of the LOI.

Following the definitive deal and subject to the completion of a pre-feasibility or a feasibility study, the joint venture will be responsible for the development of the project, including financing, operating the mine, processing as well as selling the resulting rare earth products.

According to the release, the joint partner will contribute its experience in permitting, and expertise in exploration and mining operations while Canada Rare Earth will contribute access to the various processing systems and undertake commercial activities, including marketing and selling the resulting rare earth products.