Power Minerals ready for lift-off with high-grade niobium and rare earths at Santa Anna

• Power Minerals Auger drilling hits 1.36% niobium and strong rare earth grades at Santa Anna
• Strong surface and near-surface results bode well for maiden resource estimate
• Major 10,000m reverse circulation drill program to kick off this month

Special Report: Shallow auger drilling at Power Minerals’ Santa Anna project in Brazil returned high-grade niobium and rare earths results that bode well for the goal of defining a significant resource estimate.

Notable results include 1m at 13,590ppm (or 1.36%) niobium from a down-hole depth of 8m (MN-TM-009) and 17m at 6895ppm total rare earth oxides from surface including 5m at 13,824ppm TREO from 2m (MN-TM-008).

Power Minerals (ASX:PNN) notes the consistent grades received from drilling to date indicate potential for a high grade and advanced critical mineral exploration opportunity at the 5.8km2 Santa Anna alkaline carbonatite complex.

Notably, the many mineralised intercepts from surface indicate there’s no significant overburden at these sites, which could significantly reduce mining costs.

An initial 2000m of a 10,000m reverse circulation program is expected to start this month with completion in Q1 2026.

The overall program is aimed at extending the project’s mineralised footprint east and southeast of initial drilling by targeting niobium and REE in untested areas of the complex.

“Latest results from our ongoing auger drilling at Santa Anna continue to validate our exploration model and provide confidence about the potential of this project, as we compile drill data to define a maiden mineral resource estimate for the project, which we hope will be substantial,” managing director Mena Habib said. 

“Having already announced our next phase of drilling for Santa Anna, a major reverse circulation campaign of up to 10,000m, we are looking to rapidly advance our understanding of this project’s geology. 

“The initial 2000m of RC drilling is due to commence this month, with assay results and further drilling planned to systematically follow over the coming months.”

Drill program

The second-phase auger drilling program uses smaller auger rigs to access a priority target area that has significant vegetation cover.

It is testing a large area around known mineralised drillholes via a grid-based drill plan.

This is expected to return regularly spaced sampling data, which will assist in further developing the project’s mineralisation model and provide data for the delineation of an exploration target and resource estimate.

Meanwhile, the RC drill program will extend the Santa Anna project’s mineralised footprint to the east and southeast of the maiden drilling.

The initial drilling had intersected multiple wide zones of niobium mineralisation and multiple zones of high-grade REE mineralisation.

Drilling to date has revealed an exceptional REE-rich clay layer near-surface, and also confirmed that the REE mineralisation continues into the deeper portions of the complex.

The coming RC program will target deeper REE and niobium mineralisation in previously untested areas of the Santa Anna complex.

It will systematically extend the drilling to test the deeper portions of the carbonatite complex, building on the extensive data set existing over the alkaline complex.

This article was developed in collaboration with Power 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.