Straightline Aviation to Bring Hybrid Airships to Quest Rare Minerals Mine Site in Northern Québec

LONDON, November 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Straightline Aviation and Quest Rare Minerals sign MOU at Canadian Aerospace Summit to bring eco-efficient solution to Canada's remote transportation challenges  

Straightline Aviation (SLA) announced an agreement with Quest Rare Minerals Ltd. (TSX:QRM) to provide dedicated air services for the transport of ore concentrate, supplies and personnel using Lockheed Martin's Hybrid Airships. The airships will provide shuttle transportation between Quest's Strange Lake complex mine site in Northern Québec and Schefferville, a town with a direct rail link to the Port of Sept-Iles.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), SLA will operate a fleet of seven of the world's first heavy-lift cargo Hybrid Airships, the LMH-1. The airships will transport personnel, critical supplies for mine operations, and carry more than 200,000 tonnes of rare earth ore concentrate annually for delivery to Quest's Bécancour refining facilities. Rare earth metals are critical to hundreds of high tech applications, many of which define our way of life and are key to the emergence of green technologies.

Developed and built by Lockheed Martin, the LMH-1 is well suited to Quest's transportation challenges due to its remote northern Québec mine site location. The airship has the ability to land on virtually any surface including snow, ice, gravel and even water, with no runways required or other expensive infrastructure. The helium-filled, heavier-than-air airships can carry 20 metric tons of cargo and up to 19 passengers. Both the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transport Canada have agreed on the newly developed Hybrid Airship certification criteria, which is being used to complete the type certification. First commercial deliveries are scheduled in 2019.

Hybrid Airships combine the technology of lighter than air aircraft with airplanes, helicopters and hovercraft. Helium provides 80 percent of the lift, while the remaining lift comes from the aerodynamic shape of the aircraft and its four thrust vectoring engines. The airship also features a unique hovercraft-like Air Cushion Landing System that facilitates taxiing and grips the craft firmly on the ground.

The airships present a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly solution to Quest's transport challenges. The LMH-1 is not only designed to use less fuel, emit less carbon dioxide and produce less noise than conventional aircraft, it also eliminates the need for costly ground-level infrastructure, avoiding impact on the area's wildlife habitat compared to road transport and trucking along a road corridor to the Labrador Sea coast.

This new transportation solution will also stimulate employment and business opportunities for regional and Indigenous communities increasing the socio-economic benefits to the area around the mine site.

The service agreement represents a value of approximately US$ 850 million, including fuel costs, over a 10-year period that starts in 2019, with further extensions of up to 20 additional years in line with the current projected life of the mine.

Supporting Quotes 

Mike Kendrick, Chief Executive Officer, Straightline 

"We are looking forward to working with Quest, and believe that our Hybrid Airships will provide significant benefits in reaching remote locations such as the Strange Lake complex. Removing the need for expensive, intrusive infrastructure, it is a significant step in re-defining the way transport works in remote regions."

Pierre Lortie, Executive Chairman of the Board, Quest 

"Quest and SLA make ideal partners - we are well positioned to fully leverage the cost efficiencies and environmental advantages of the LMH-1, and are truly excited to be among the first companies to implement such an innovative transport solution."

Rob Binns, Chief Executive Officer, Hybrid Enterprises 

"Lockheed Martin's Hybrid Airship represents a revolution in remote cargo delivery. The Quest Strange Lake Project is a prime example of how our Hybrid Airship enables a cost effective and environmentally friendly solution to accessing strategically important mineral deposits."  

Charles Bouchard, Chief Executive Lockheed Martin Canada  

"I am thrilled to see Lockheed Martin's advanced technology coming to the province of Quebec and indeed being sought after to solve transportation challenges in some of the most isolated and northern regions of Canada. It is an ideal country to use the highly innovative Hybrid Airships and I applaud the collaboration between Hybrid Enterprises, Straightline Aviation and Quest Rare Minerals in pursuing such an environmentally-friendly solution in Canada."

ABOUT 

Straightline Aviation is headquartered in the United Kingdom with offices in New York and Los Angeles, SLA was co-founded by a team of highly experienced airship and aviation executives with the sole purpose of bringing Hybrids into operation. Chief Executive Officer Mike Kendrick previously founded and ran the Virgin Group's extensive airship interests, including the Virgin Airship and Balloon Company (VABC). Mark Dorey was the Chief Operating Officer of VABC and is now SLA's COO. David Tait OBE, the President of SLA's U.S. operations, was a founding member of the team that created Virgin Atlantic Airways and was the Executive Vice President of Virgin Atlantic Airways' U.S. operation for 18 years.

Quest Rare Minerals Ltd. ("Quest") is a Canadian-based company focused on becoming an integrated producer of rare earth metal oxides and a significant participant in the rare earth elements (REE) material supply chain. Quest is led by a management team with in-depth experience in chemical and metallurgical processing. Quest's objective is the establishment of major hydrometallurgical and refining facilities in Bécancour, Québec, to separate and produce strategically critical rare earth metal oxides. These industrial facilities will process mineral concentrates extracted from Quest's Strange Lake mining properties in northern Québec and recycle lamp phosphors utilizing Quest's efficient, eco-friendly "Selective Thermal Sulphation (STS)"^[1] process.

Hybrid Enterprises is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Hybrid Enterprises is the exclusive reseller of Lockheed Martin's Hybrid Airships. Hybrid Enterprises is comprised of industry professionals who have sold, leased and operated cargo aircraft in over 120 countries on six continents. Hybrid Enterprises is solely focused on sales and marketing of Lockheed Martin's Hybrid Airships.

Images:    http://bit.ly/SLA-QUEST-IMAGES

For information:

Straightline Aviation
Mike Kendrick
Chief Executive Officer
Office: +44-1384-904035
Cell. : +44-7802-395969
info@straightlineaviation.com


Quest Rare Minerals
Julie Masse
Vice-President, Communications
+1-514-502-8837
info@questrareminerals.com

^[1] Patent Pending