LAKEWOOD, COLORADO--(Marketwired - May 3, 2013) - Rare Element Resources Ltd. (NYSE Amex:REE)(NYSE MKT:REE)(TSX:RES) (the "Company") announced today that it has filed a NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Mineral Reserves and Resources and Development of the Bull Hill Mine (the "Technical Report") for the Bear Lodge Rare Earth Project, located near Sundance, Wyoming. The Technical Report updates the resource for the Project and confirms the details provided in the Company's press release dated 18 March 2013 entitled "Rare Element Reports 65 Percent Increase of Total M&I Rare-Earth Mineral Resource at Bear Lodge." It incorporates more than 57,000 ft. (17,300 m) of exploration and development drilling conducted by the Company in 2012. The full Technical Report, prepared by Mr. Alan C. Noble, P.E., principal engineer of Ore Reserves Engineering (ORE) and a Qualified Person for the purpose of Canadian National Instrument 43‐101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), is available under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com or on the Company's website at www.rareeleementresources.com. The Technical Report supersedes the previous technical report filed by the Company in April 2012.

Key highlights from the Company's drilling program to date include the following:

• Increase in the total Measured and Indicated (M&I) oxide resource at Bear Lodge from 7.5 million tons (6.8 million tonnes) to 14.7 million tons (13.3 million tonnes) at an average grade of 3.22% rare earth oxide (REO), based on a 1.5% cutoff grade. This represents an increase in total pounds of REO resource of 65%, from 571 million to 944 million pounds.
  
  
• Upgrade of the M&I resource at the Bull Hill deposit and establishment of the first-ever Indicated resource at the Whitetail Ridge deposit, located just northwest of the Bull Hill deposit.
  
  
• Identification of high-grade zones that constitute an M&I resource of 6 million tons (5.4 million tonnes) grading 4.72% REO at a cutoff grade of 3% within the overall Bear Lodge resource.
  
  

"We are very pleased with the success of our 2012 drill program in expanding the Bear Lodge resource while maintaining a strong average grade of over 3.2% REO. Our project district has an excellent distribution and high abundance of Critical Rare Earth Elements, the higher-valued elements that we expect to experience better demand growth and price support over the longer term. Both the quantity and quality of our updated resource makes us confident in our assertion that the Bear Lodge Project is now a world-class, critical rare earth district," stated Randall J. Scott, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The increase in high-grade mineralization also gives us flexibility on our mine size and production rate, and may allow us to pursue an initial higher-grade, lower production scenario with lower capital cost if desired. This gives us flexibility and makes us better able to adjust to changing market conditions," he added.

The exploration and development drilling program undertaken by the Company in 2012 included 68 core holes, for a total of 57,419 ft. (17,506 m), and 42 reverse circulation drill holes, for a total of 24,805 ft. (7,562.5 m). The reverse circulation drill holes were used for exploration purposes and are not included in the resource estimation. In addition, 14 large diameter (PQ- and HQ-sized) holes totaling 6,853 ft. (2,089 m) provided bulk sample material for metallurgical testing. The Technical Report includes the results from all core drilling undertaken by the Company between 2009 and 2012.

The Company's resource in the Inferred category for all mineralization types increased to 42.3 million tons (38.4 million tonnes) with an average grade of 2.59% REO, from 34.6 million tons (31.4 million tonnes) at an average grade of 2.83% REO in 2012. Of the updated Inferred resource, 31.4 million tons is contained in near-surface Oxide and Oxide-Carbonate material.

The qualified mineral reserves identified in the previous Technical Report dated April 2012 have been carried forward. A new reserve has not been calculated under the Technical Report. These reserve estimates will be updated as part of the upcoming Feasibility Study, expected to begin in mid-2013.

For more details on the M&I and Inferred resources, as well as the rare earth element distribution and impact of cutoff grades on these deposits, please see the press release issued by the Company on 18 March 2013 or view the complete Technical Report, both of which can be found at www.rareelementresources.com. All resources reported herein comply with NI 43-101.

Rare Element defines Critical Rare Earth Elements as Neodymium (Nd), Praseodymium (Pr), Europium (Eu), Terbium (Tb), Dysprosium (Dy) and Yttrium (Y), based on their projected future demand and generally higher per kilogram price.

Qualified Persons

The new resource model and the NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Bear Lodge Property was prepared by Mr. Alan C. Noble, P.E., principal engineer of Ore Reserves Engineering (ORE), Jaye T. Pickarts, Chief Operating Officer of Rare Element, and Richard Larsen, Engineering Manager of Rare Element. Mr. Noble, P.E. is the Qualified Person for the purpose of Canadian National Instrument 43‐101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") for this technical report. Mr. Noble performed the mineral resource estimation and is the primary author of the technical report. Jaye T. Pickarts, P.E. and Richard K. Larsen, P.E. assembled the geological, exploration, metallurgy, and engineering activity information for this report, and they are both Qualified Persons. Mr. Pickarts was engaged in the preparation of metallurgical test programs and baseline environmental studies on the Bear Lodge Project. In 2011, he became the Company's Chief Operating Officer, and he thereafter managed and supervised all of the metallurgical and engineering programs for the project. Richard Larsen worked on the property as a geologist for Duval Corporation from 1975-1978. Mr. Larsen was hired by the Company in December 2011 as Senior Development Geologist, then Engineering Manager. He was responsible for managing and supervising the Company's development drilling at the Bull Hill REE deposit in 2012.

Mineral Resources are not Reserves

Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral resource estimates do not account for minability, selectivity, mining loss, and dilution. These mineral resource estimates are in the measured, indicated, and inferred mineral resource categories. Inferred mineral resources are normally considered too speculative geologically for the application of economic considerations that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to measured and indicated mineral resource categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves once economic considerations are applied.

Rare Element announced positive economic results from its pre-feasibility study (PFS) on 1 March 2012 and a revised news release on 12 April 2012. The PFS established a proven plus probable mineral reserve for the Bull Hill deposit that contains 7.914 million tons (7.2M metric tonnes) at a grade of 3.12% REO and at a cutoff grade of 1.1% REO.

Rare Element Resources Ltd. is a publicly traded mineral resource company focused on exploration and development of rare-earth elements (REEs), with a significant distribution of critical rare earths (CREEs). In addition to the REE exploration and evaluation efforts, the Company controls the Sundance gold project, which is located on the same property in Wyoming.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of securities legislation in the United States and Canada. Except for statements of historical fact, certain information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are usually identified by our use of certain terminology, including "will", "believes", "may", "expects", "should", "seeks", "anticipates", "plans", "has potential to", or "intends' or by discussions of strategy or intentions. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts, and include but are not limited to, mineral resource estimates and their underlying assumptions; the anticipated mine life of the project and possible timing and options being considered in the Feasibility Study. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results or achievements to be materially different from any future results or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, our estimates of mineral resources; capital costs estimates; processing technology effectiveness; fluctuations in demand for, and price of, rare earth products; timing of and unexpected events at the Bear Lodge property; delay or failure to receive government approvals and permits; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; the timing of a Feasibility Study and matters that will be discussed therein; plans for pilot scale metallurgical testing; technical, permitting, mining or processing issues; changes in U.S. and Canadian securities markets; and fluctuations in input costs and general economic conditions. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting the Company will be those anticipated by management. Please refer to the discussion of these and other factors in our Transition Report on Form 10-K for the six months ended December 31, 2012. We expect that the above estimates will change as new information is received and that actual results will vary from these estimates, possibly by material amounts. While we may elect to update these estimates at any time, we do not undertake to update any estimate at any particular time or in response to any particular event. Investors and others should not assume that any forecasts in this press release represent management's estimate as of any date other than the date of this press release.

Cautionary Statement

Jaye T Pickarts, P.E., Rare Element's qualified person under Canadian NI 43-101, supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information concerning the Company's mineral project contained in this news release. For a description of the key assumptions, parameters and methods used to estimate mineral reserves and resources, as well as data verification procedures and a general discussion of the extent to which the estimates may be affected by any known environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing or other relevant factors, please see the Technical Reports for our project as filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission permits U.S. mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. We may use certain terms in public disclosures, such as "measured," "indicated," "inferred" and "resources," that are recognized by Canadian regulations, but that SEC guidelines generally prohibit U.S. registered companies from including in their filings with the SEC. U.S. investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 10-K which may be secured from us, or from the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.