Highest grades to date continue to impress Colossus as a globally significant REE project

Maiden drilling results at Tamoyo East and Centrol Sul add two new REE discoveries to Colossus
Drilling at Cupim South and Fazenda increase strategic importance of the prospects
Drilling and metallurgical work continues across the entire project area

Special Report: A sixth batch of assays from drilling at Viridis Mining & Minerals’ Colossus REE project have returned up to 27,087 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) from maiden drilling at the Tamoyo East prospect in the project’s northern region.

Colossus, in the world-class Minas Gerais mining district in Brazil, is an ionic adsorption clay-hosted (IAC) project – meaning it has great potential to contain high grades of valuable magnetic REEs such as neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb).

Batch six shows highest grades yet at Colossus

On its way to proving up what Viridis Mining & Minerals (ASX:VMM) believes is becoming a globally significant REE resource, a sixth batch of assays from maiden drilling at the project has added two extra discoveries north and south of the main Alkaline Complex at Colossus – with the highest grades to date.

That comes up to an impressive 27,087 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) from maiden diamond drilling at the Tamoyo East prospect at Colossus’ northern end, which VMM says has the ability to be fast-tracked due to its granted mining licence and outstanding grades.

To the south of the Alkaline Complex, drilling results at Centro Sul have intercepted thick profiles of REE-rich ionic clays, including 22m at 2848ppm TREO from 5m, including 10.5m at 3929ppm TREO with 31% magnetic rare earth oxides (MREO) from hole CNT-DDH-003.

Cupim South and Fazenda results

Infill RC and diamond drilling assays from Cupim South has returned the thickest intercept to date and consistently high grades of mineralisation, which VMM says will significantly improve the resource model for the asset.

A best intersection showed a thick 81m at 2236ppm TREO from surface, including 30m at 3105ppm TREO with a 30% MREO concentration.

Meanwhile, augur drilling at Fazenda continues to uncover a new and extremely high-grade area of DyTb mineralisation and highlights the strategic importance of that area of Colossus to produce both light and heavy rare earths.

A highlight hole at Fazenda showed 8m at 6180ppm TREO from 4m, ending in mineralisation of 16,144ppm TREO with the last 3m showing 10,913ppm TREO and 111ppm DyTb oxide.

Drill results at Colossus surrounding Meteoric’s world-class Caldeira REE project. Pic supplied: (VMM)

“I’m extremely pleased, considering we’ve made two new greenfield discoveries at opposite ends of the Complex, reaffirming the homogenous nature of the mineralisation,” VMM CEO Rafael Moreno says.

“Meanwhile infill drilling at Cupim South has returned the thickest intercept to date and auger drilling at Fazenda continues to unlock its remarkable near-surface and high-grade heavy rare earth potential.

“Fazenda is proving itself to be an incredibly critical part of the Colossus project, being the only known location in the Complex which hosts surface-level high-grade heavy rare earths within a granted mining license and bodes well for the output from our initial scoping study.

“Our consistent investment into greenfield exploration is also paying off, as for each of the last three batches we’ve discovered record-breaking grades – this time within a mining license from maiden RC and diamond drilling, returning an impressive 15m at 6153ppm TREO.

“The results we’ve released to date and strategic location of Colossus gives the team incredible confidence that we are well placed to be the leading IAC resource in the Alkaline Complex, with the MoU’s signed by the state and local municipality providing a de-risked pathway for our approvals.

“Our recent JV with Ionic Rare Earths (ASX:IXR) also provides a de-risked pathway to the qualification of downstream technology into Brazil.”

Ongoing exploration

The current focus of development work will be on Northern Concessions, with metallurgical drilling and environmental permitting progressing.

Step-out drilling is progressing across Cupim South to expand the scale of mineralisation and imminent metallurgical work, resource modelling and permitting is ongoing across the entire project area.

This article was developed in collaboration with Viridis Mining & 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.