Ann: Acquisition of Potential World Class Ionic Clay REE Project, page-330

Hi mate, after looking at the Serra Verde project in more detail (check their website) construction is done, haul trucks delivered and jobs advertised. Looks like they are just about ready to go live.

Going over some more of the detail it appears to me MEI could well trump Serra Verde in the future.
(source: nhm.ac.uk)

1. Serra Verde has an inferred resource of 458 million metric tonnes at a grade of 0.098 per cent total REE (May 2012, 43-101 compliant).
MEI says, "Head grade of the composite sample for test work collected from 44 holes, over 140 samples (200 kg) was 4,917ppm TREO..."
As per some of my preliminary estimations for targets in previous posts I believe MEI could easily get to ~450mt @ ~1-2ppm REE.

2. Serra Verde says, "Heavy rare earth elements (HREE) account for 24 per cent of the deposit."
MEI says, "The Caldeira Project represents an enriched HREO basket with strongly enriched Magnet REO’s – Tb2O3, Dy2O3, Nd2O3 and Pr2O3 - averaging greater than 22% of TREO."

3. Serra Verde says, "The REE typically occur in a 6m deep layer of clay-bearing saprolite."
MEI says, "the deepest hole ends at 20m and the average hole depth is less than 10m." and "REE mineralisation commences from surface and remains completely open at depth with 85% of the 1,311 auger holes ending in grades above 1,000ppm TREO" with extension drilling to come this season.

4. Serra Verde says, "In total, exploration work to date has included 11,090 auger, diamond drill and reverse circulation drill holes, amounting to ~57,600m of drilling within the Pela Ema area."
The Caldeira project has 1,311 holes for 13,037m so far.

5. Serra Verde says, "Initial testing suggests that more than 50 per cent of the REE bulk is adsorbed on clay."
On initial met testing MEI says,
"Average recovery of the low temperature magnet REE Pr + Nd was 58%" and "Average recovery of high temperature magnet REE, Tb +Dy was 43%." "These results show a considerable portion of the target REEs are adsorbed onto clays..."

As you can probably tell...I am quite bullish on MEI .