The Searchlight Heavy Rare Earths Project is an exploration project located in a precious metal mining district in the eastern Mojave Desert Region about 119km south of Las Vegas and 30km east of the only operating rare earths mine in North America at Mountain Pass. The area is readily accessible by road, with climate and terrain favouring year-around exploration activities.
The old mining district in which the project is located was variously explored and mined for precious metals and turquoise in the early 1900s, and some exploration was done in modern times for porphyry copper and detachment-related gold. During the 1950s uranium prospecting rush, a significant number of REE-thorium occurrences were discovered in the district and adjacent areas, but none were mined. The district has received little attention since.
