Brazilian Critical Minerals ramps up rare earths infill drilling

Brazilian Critical Minerals kicks off aggressive work programs at rare earths project
Mineral resource estimate upgrade from inferred to indicated target
Infill drilling and metallurgical testing underway with scoping study planned

Special Report: Brazilian Critical Minerals is embarking on an aggressive multi-pronged approach to the Ema project development for the remainder of the year, including a major infill auger drilling program.

The aim is to upgrade the high-grade portion of the project’s inferred mineral resource estimate of 1.02Bt at 793ppm TREO to an indicated JORC category.

Converting sufficient tonnage would support the initial mining/treatment operations currently being considered, the company says.

Brazilian Critical Minerals (ASX:BCM) has now embarked on a 240-hole auger drilling program which will be completed over the next 12 weeks.

An updated MRE will also be calculated during Q4 2024.

Promising metallurgy on the cards

The company has completed several rounds of metallurgical bench-scale testwork, showing the project has some of the world’s highest rates of rare earth recoveries for any ionic clay deposit anywhere in the world, averaging 68% MREO (Nd,Pr,Dy,Tb).

Additional ANSTO metallurgical testing is continuing and the company is aiming to establish a low capex, low risk development option through a scoping study.

“Don’t let the relatively lower head grade mislead you, we have defined mineralisation that has a high composition of NdPr and keeps on delivering strong metallurgical results, producing remarkable recoveries of MREO averaging 68%, utilising extremely low concentrations of reagents,” managing director Andrew Reid said.

“We are now in the fortunate position of having to evaluate several low capex entry start-up processing routes which will guide us through the scoping study period and ultimately define the process flowsheet, which is currently being performed at ANSTO.

“The Ema project, which has similar physical characteristics to the large Chinese ionic clay deposits is shaping up to be a low capex, low opex, low risk project that is unique outside of China, producing a product which is ready to go into any rare earth separation plant anywhere in the world.”

Brazilian Critical Minerals (ASX:BCM) — Source: BCM.

Key approval works to start

Along with the scoping study, BCM is also continuing baseline environmental data gathering at the project which will inform the placement of project infrastructure, the assessment of potential impacts, and the development of environmental mitigation measures including operating and closure aspects of the project.

All of this will be incorporated into the preliminary licence application to the state environmental authority.

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.