Brazilian Critical Minerals drilling highlights consistent REE mineralisation, ISR potential
Mining
Mining
Special Report: Confidence in the grade and thickness of rare earths mineralisation at Brazilian Critical Minerals’ Ema project in Brazil’s Apui region has increased further following the receipt of more drill intercepts.
The third batch of assays comprising 76 auger holes drilled during the 2024 resource infill program returned excellent grades and thicknesses.
Notable results include:
This is in line with previous results such as 10m at 1103ppm TREO from 10m ending in 1817ppm TREO (EMA-TR-236) from the second batch of assays and 9.3m at 1347ppm TREO from 4m from the initial assays.
Brazilian Critical Minerals (ASX:BCM) adds that mineralisation is now confirmed to be widespread within the 21km2 central starter area and noted the strong elevated grades of valuable magnet REEs neodymium and praseodymium directly above the fresh bedrock contact.
Those characteristics makes the deposit ideal for in-situ mining methods, which are used for most of the world’s ionic clay-hosted REE mineralisation.
The results are also expected to support ore reserve calculations and pre-planning of ISR field trials required as part of a feasibility study scheduled for 2025.
“All three batches of assay results released for the 2024 drilling program have confirmed widespread mineralisation being intersected over the majority of the central starter area,” managing director Andrew Reid said.
“Results returned confirm that the starter area alone should be able to support a long-life rare-earth hub, with all the mineralisation within 20m of the surface and ideal for in-situ recovery mining techniques.
“We are now pushing ahead with finalising our low capex scoping study, preparing for the permeability field trials and commencing a feasibility study over the coming months.”
Assays have now been received from 212 of the 270 holes drilled by the company in 2024.
Drilling was designed on 400m centres within the high priority starter zone, which covers ~24% of the 977Mt at 729ppm TREO resource area.
Results to date have indicated a strong increase in MREO grades towards the base of the weathering profile in the saprock portion of the profile.
This is further supported by valuable heavy REEs making up more than 31% of the MREO grades at the end of the holes, a finding that supports the economic potential of the lower saprolite zone.
It suggests that further exploration and development of these areas could be beneficial towards developing a low-cost ISR operation, which is the current focus of the scoping study.
Ema is known for sharing characteristics with the ionic REE deposits developed over felsic volcanic rocks in southwest China, which produce ~30% of the world’s rare earths.
The project covers 189km2 of felsic volcanic terrain with 45% yet to be explored, indicating there’s potential for resource expansion as additional drilling is undertaken.
This article was developed in collaboration with Brazilian Critical Minerals a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.