Brazilian Critical Minerals’ green processing produces high-value MREC product at Ema project

Brazilian Critical Minerals’ has successfully produced high-value, bulk MREC from Ema material
Product produced using environmentally friendly magnesium-based reagents instead of ammonium
Further testing underway using material from current infill program that is nearing completion

Special Report: Brazilian Critical Minerals’ Ema project is a step closer towards becoming a significant supplier of rare earths after testing successfully produced a high-value, bulk mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC).

The MREC ticks all the right boxes with a high 55.3% total rare earth oxide (TREO) content and valuable magnet rare earths (MREE) making up a very hefty 38% of the final REO basket composition – a significant result as they tend to make up a disproportionate part of its value.

This is highlighted by neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium making up US$27.59 of the overall TREO basket’s value of US$30.66/kg.

Other notable takeaways for Brazilian Critical Minerals (ASX:BCM) from the testing by ANSTO include the use of environmentally friendly magnesium-based reagents instead of ammonium and the production of the MREC product after just 30 minutes.

Recoveries of >99% of the MREEs in the MREC precipitation stage were also noted after 2 hours of mixing at the target pH using magnesium bicarbonate.

Confidence building

“BCM has a vision to create one of the most environmentally friendly and lowest cost rare earth mines globally,” managing director Andrew Reid said.

“The results from ANSTO confirm that BCM remains on track to achieve this goal by producing a high value final product utilising environmentally responsible magnesium-based reagents.”

The company noted it is now increasingly confident in its ability to build a low-cost in-situ recovery rare earth project, having exceeded all expectations over the last six months since the mineral resource estimate was released.

In-situ recovery of rare earths, which currently produces some 30% of the world’s production, significantly simplifies and removes at least 60% of the typical process flowsheet and much of the complexity when compared to traditional methods of rare earth clay extraction.

“Not only is the complexity and capital cost hurdle far lower for development of an ISR project, but the operating cost are also typically in the lowest quartile, which bodes well for our Ema project,” said Reid.

The Ema project, in northern Brazil, currently has an inferred resource of 1.02Bt at 793ppm total rare earth oxides and is noted for sharing many of the characteristics with the well-know ionic REE deposits in south-west China, which produces about 40% of the world’s REE.

Test work

Testing by ANSTO had focused on achieving a viable, low-cost flowsheet utilising magnesium sulfate, magnesium oxide and magnesium bicarbonate as the foundation chemicals through just three surface processing steps.

These environmentally friendly reagents allow for the development of low cost in-situ recovery of rare earths while avoiding the potential harm and degradation from using ammonium-based reagents.

Producing a high-value MREC with 55.3% TREO and just 2% impurities from a 41kg composite sample underscores the potential for scalable and economically viable operations at Ema with a focus on low cost and efficiency.

BCM adds that the test work revealed that pH played a significant role in the selective removal of impurities such as iron and resulted in the production of high-purity, industry-grade REEs.

Next steps

The company is currently carrying out an extensive infill drilling program to improve the accuracy of the resource estimate and test strategic locations that are expected to yield insights into the mineralisation and support the initial ISR assessment.

This is expected to result in an updated resource estimate.

ANSTO is also carrying out a comprehensive suite of metallurgical tests on a representative master sample to determine processing characteristics from the current infill program.

Additionally, BCM is working to complete a scoping study using both the updated resource and results from metallurgical testing to inform the economic viability of the Ema project.

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.