Kristie Batten: Summit sees plenty of upside in new Brazilian rare earths project

One of Australia’s top mining journalists, Kristie Batten writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene.

After a busy 2024, Summit Minerals (ASX:SUM) kicked off 2025 by announcing the potential acquisition of a new rare earths and niobium project in Brazil.

Summit announced its entry into Brazil in April with the low-cost acquisition of a portfolio of six projects prospective for rare earths, niobium and lithium.

A few days into the new year, Summit announced a deal to acquire the Mundo Nova niobium-REE phosphate carbonatite in Goiás State.

Summit managing director Gower He told investors last week that the company was constantly being presented with promising opportunities.

“We want to take a closer look at this one as it is an advanced, drill-ready project with 90% of the permitting already in place,” he said.

Summit is now completing a 60-day due diligence process.

If the company moves ahead with the acquisition, it will pay A$2.2 million cash and issue $2 million worth of shares, while up to an additional $3 million in cash and $3 million of shares will be due down the track.

Mundo Novo an IAC

One important characteristic of Mundo Novo for Summit is that it’s interpreted to be an ionic adsorption clay deposit.

“We’re dealing with a carbonatite here,” Summit exploration general manager Jonathan King said, adding that it was captured entirely within the concession.

“It is similar in size and character to CBMM’s Araxá carbonatite, which lies at the southern end of the Goiás alkaline province. Mundo Novo sits in the north of the same province.”

Summit says the project also shares characteristics with the Poços De Caldas carbonatite, which hosts Meteoric Resources’ Caldeira REE deposit.

King said the upper 40-50m of the carbonatite was profoundly weathered, which had important implications for both REE and niobium mineralisation.

Niobium host mineral pyrochlore has been confirmed.

“I think perhaps one of the most exciting features of this carbonatite is that it’s so under-drilled,” King said.

Around 78% of the drilling completed at the project is to a depth of less than 30m.

Results from previous drilling have included 541 individual intersections grading more than 5000 parts per million total rare earth oxide, including 51m at 10,000ppm TREO from surface, including 14m at 15,800ppm and 6m at 23,800ppm, as well as 9m at 1.23% niobium pentoxide from 2m, including 4m at 1.62%.

“There’s some fantastic interceptions – we’ve got good grade, we’ve got good widths and that’s in both niobium and rare earths,” King said.

“I think the setting is ideal and the mineralisation that we’re seeing is reflecting the fact that we’re in the right location.”

King said other advantages of the project was access to power and a sealed highway, proximity to a town and workforce and flat ground.

“We know the scale of the thing is comparable to some of our peers in-country, which is a very important feature,” King said.

“It’s very early days for this project, we’re still doing due diligence, but we’re excited by what we see.

“There’s not much to really not like about it at this stage.”

Busy period ahead

Summit is now completing technical and legal due diligence, which will take up to 60 days.

and will require shareholder approval for the acquisition.

“If we acquire Mondo, it will be because it ticks all the boxes from a geological and strategic perspective,” He said.

The project is drill ready and Summit plans to prioritise niobium exploration.

The company had $3.5 million in cash at the end of September.

“We’re currently looking at all cost-efficient ways to expand our Brazilian and Australian teams to make sure we get the best results for our shareholders in the new year, and we’ve got a lot of activities planned for the coming months,” He said.

Summit is working on setting up its Brazilian subsidiary and securing permits to drill its Equador niobium project.

“We also plan to do an extensive program of works on the greater Equador region, as well as starting some early geological and permitting works on our other portfolios in Brazil,” He said.

“Now it’s a lot of work in a jurisdiction that Summit has only entered in May last year, so we ask a bit of patience from our shareholders whilst we try to balance costs and efficiencies to bring value to our shareholders as quick as possible.”

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Summit Minerals is a Stockhead advertiser it did not sponsor this article.