UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, DC 20549
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT PURSUANT
TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
Date of report (Date of earliest event reported)
August 19, 2015
SEARCHLIGHT
MINERALS CORP.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in
Its Charter)
Nevada
(State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation)
000-30995 |
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98-0232244 |
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(Commission File Number) |
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(IRS Employer Identification No.) |
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2360 W. Horizon Ridge Pkwy, Suite #100, Henderson, Nevada |
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89052 |
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(Address of Principal Executive Offices) |
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(Zip Code) |
(702) 939-5247 |
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(Registrant's Telephone Number, Including Area Code) |
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(Former Name or Former Address, if Changed Since Last Report) |
Check the appropriate
box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the
following provisions (SEE General Instruction A.2. below):
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Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425) |
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Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12) |
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Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b)) |
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Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c)) |
Item 7.01 Regulation FD Disclosure.
Press Release
On August 19, 2015, Searchlight Minerals
Corp. (the “Company”) issued a press release, which is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1. The information contained in
the press release attached hereto is being furnished and shall not be deemed filed for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), or otherwise subject to the liability of that Section, and shall
not be incorporated by reference into any registration statement or other document filed under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
or the Exchange Act, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing. By filing this report on Form
8-K and furnishing this information, the Company makes no admission as to the materiality of any information in this report that
is required to be disclosed solely by reason of Regulation FD.
Item 9.01 Financial
Statements and Exhibits.
Exhibit 99.1
Press Release, dated August 19, 2015, issued by Searchlight Minerals Corp.
SIGNATURE
Pursuant to the requirements of the Exchange
Act, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
Dated: August 19, 2015
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SEARCHLIGHT MINERALS CORP. |
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By: |
/s/ Martin B. Oring |
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Martin B. Oring
President |
Exhibit 99.1
SEARCHLIGHT MINERALS CORP. COMPLETES
$3.27 MILLION IN EQUITY FINANCINGS AND RECEIVES RESULTS OF BENCH SCALE TESTS FROM MIDREX TECHNOLOGIES, A WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY
OF KOBE STEEL
HENDERSON, Nevada (August 19, 2015) – Searchlight
Minerals Corp. (OTCQB: SRCH) (“Searchlight” or the “Company”) today announced that it has raised $3.27
million across three rounds of financings within the last five months (collectively, the “Offering”) for working capital
purposes. The Company has also received results of certain bench scale tests conducted by Midrex Technologies, Inc. (“Midrex”),
a wholly owned subsidiary of Kobe Steel, Ltd., to examine the efficacy of its technology as a potentially more cost effective pretreatment
method to extract iron from the Company’s slag material in Clarkdale, AZ.
Financing
The Company completed three rounds of the Offering – March
25, May 21 and July 31, 2015 – resulting in aggregate gross proceeds of $3,270,450. In the Offering, the Company sold 9,308,429
“Units” with each Unit consisting of one share of the Company’s common stock and one common stock purchase warrant.
Each warrant entitles the warrant holder to purchase one share of the Company’s Common Stock, at an exercise price of $0.50
per share and expire five years from the date of issuance. Certain registration rights were granted to the purchasers in connection
with the Offering.
Thermal Pre-treatment
Previous testing on slag material conducted by the Company on
material from the Company’s Clarkdale Slag Project indicated that a high quality iron product could be produced from the
slag material by using a thermal pre-treatment step prior to the autoclave process, which is designed to extract the gold. The
Company conducted such tests to determine whether high quality iron could be produced from the slag material with the goal that
the resulting iron may be sold at a price, which could at a minimum, pay for the cost of producing it and perhaps produce an additional
cash flow above and beyond the revenue that the Company may receive from the extraction of gold from the slag pile. The Company
also believes that the iron-removing pre-treatment of the slag material in this manner results in greater gold extraction from
the autoclave process.
The Company recently awarded a contract to Midrex to run bench
scale testing in their test facility in Charlotte, N.C. to determine if their technology could produce a high quality iron product
from the Company’s slag material in a more cost effective manner than previously used by the Company.
The report provided in connection with these tests by Midrex
states: “This work successfully demonstrated the technical suitability of using Midrex’s FASTMET® technology to
allow iron to be removed from copper slag. Up to 97.8% iron metallization was achieved in bench scale box furnace testing, exceeding
the goal of 90.0% iron metallization. FASTMET® DRI was then melted in a crucible furnace separating the iron metal from the
residual iron-lean slag. 350 grams of this resulting slag was ground and representative samples were sent to Searchlight for gold
analysis. This report satisfies the deliverables contracted under proposal no. MTI-9502-99 and presents the evolution of the mix
chemistries and bench scale testing.”
The Company believes that the Midrex technology uses much less
costly natural gas coupled with a flux additive which also provides thermal energy, compared with the Company’s previously
used method which uses electricity as its energy source. Since the leading cost source in the production of iron from the slag
material is energy, the Company believes that the net result is a projected significant cost savings by using the Midrex technology.
It is the Company’s intent to have Midrex perform additional bench tests and pilot scale tests to confirm these
test results and to scale up their process.
The Company has also had discussions with Midrex on their potential
interest in participating in a commercial scale project to produce iron from the Company’s slag pile.
An initial test performed by the Company on the glass (the resulting
product following Midrex’s removal of the iron from the slag material) has shown the presence of gold. However, additional
testing needs to be performed in order to quantify the amount of gold contained in the glass as well as to determine the optimal
autoclave chemistry to use on the glass.
A work plan is being assembled with Midrex to include performing
a pilot scale test which will allow a much larger quantity of glass to be produced for additional bench and pilot scale autoclave
testing. Midrex’s pilot scale test unit is anticipated to process 50 to 100 kilograms of slag material per hour, thus producing
sufficient glass for the Company to run pilot scale tests in the Company’s 900 liter autoclave which requires 100 kilograms
of material per test run.
Autoclave Optimization
The Company recently installed certain required components to
switch from using chlorine reagents to chlorine gas for the autoclave process. The Company believes that this will not only significantly
lower supply costs on the commercial unit but will eliminate the potential problems of salt formation in the autoclave. The Company
anticipates that this will also simplify and increase recovery of gold from the pregnant leach solution (PLS) derived from
the autoclave process.
Initial test work conducted with the chlorine gas system has
indicated that this system, used in lieu of the previous chlorine chemical system, provides a much higher oxidizing capability
at a much lower total reagent cost, reduces the salt load in solution and therefore, eliminating the piping plugging problems encountered
in previous autoclave test runs. Once additional bench autoclave tests have been completed to finalize
the chemical and operating conditions, the 900 liter pilot autoclave will be operated to verify results to date at a larger scale.
Third Party Review and Verification
The Company is in the process of hiring an independent team
of well qualified and experienced experts to complete a technical review of the project. It is anticipated that a favorable report
from this review would be used to facilitate the financing of the bankable feasibility study and commercial production facility.
Martin Oring, CEO of Searchlight Minerals Corp., noted, “I
am pleased that we are making progress with Midrex’s technology as we strive to reduce our iron production costs. I am confident
that as our work with Midrex continues, we will be able to optimize our gold extraction from our autoclave process using the Midrex
produced glass and our recently installed chlorine gas system.” Mr. Oring continued, “We are excited that Luxor, our
largest investor and stakeholder, as well as a number of new and existing investors, have elected to participate in our Offering.
It shows confidence in both our Company’s project and future stock performance. Our Offering ensures that we will have necessary
capital to continue with our technical program as well as perform a third party review and analysis of our project as we move towards
finalizing the project’s feasibility.”
About Searchlight Minerals Corp.
Searchlight is an exploration stage company engaged in the acquisition
and exploration of mineral properties and slag reprocessing projects. The Company holds interest in the Clarkdale Slag Project,
located in Clarkdale, Arizona, which is a reclamation project to recover precious and base metals from the reprocessing of slag
produced from the smelting of copper ore mined at the United Verde Copper Mine in Jerome, Arizona. Searchlight is headquartered
in Henderson, Nevada, and its common stock is listed on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol “SRCH.” Additional
information is available on the Company's website at www.searchlightminerals.com and in the Company’s filings with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Forward-Looking Statements
This Press Release may contain, in addition to historical
information, forward-looking statements. Statements in this Press Release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various
risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s
periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. When used in this Press Release in discussing the recent developments
on the Company’s mineral projects, including, without limitation, the resolution of certain issues relating to the operation
of production modules, the words such as “believe,” “could,” “may,” “expect” and
similar expressions are forward-looking statements. The risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking
statements include, but are not restricted to technical issues with the mineral projects that may affect production modules and
primary process components, challenges in moving from pilot plant scale to production scale, the risk that actual recoveries of
base and precious metals or other minerals re-processed from the slag material at the Clarkdale site will not be economically feasible,
uncertainty of estimates of mineralized material, operational risk, the Company’s limited operating history, uncertainties
about the availability of additional financing, geological or mechanical difficulties affecting the Company’s planned mineral
recovery programs, the risk that actual capital costs, operating costs and economic returns may differ significantly from the Company’s
estimates and uncertainty whether the results from the Company’s feasibility studies are sufficiently positive for the Company
to proceed with the construction of its processing facility, operational risk, the impact of governmental and environmental regulation,
financial risk, currency risk volatility in the prices of precious metals and other statements that are not historical facts as
disclosed under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission. Consequently, risk factors including, but not limited to the aforementioned, may result in significant delays to the
projected or anticipated production target dates.
Contact Information:
RJ Falkner & Company, Inc., Investor Relations Counsel at
(800) 377-9893 or via email at info@rjfalkner.com
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