NioCorp is aiming to show that it can extract and separate rare earth elements from ore that it expects to mine from the project site - which remains subject to financing, and that its simplified process of producing niobium, scandium, and titanium is technically and economically feasible.

"Many of these processes have already been successfully tested at the bench scale," NioCorp's Scott Honan said.

NioCorp had a share price of C$1.01 (US$0.77) on 6 September and a market capitalisation of C$280.47 million.