Verónica Castro-AllendeArgentine Rare Earths is a forerunner in the Asian rare earths industry with exciting new projects on the horizon and an abundance of encouraging results firmly under their belt.
Brazilian Rare Earths ( BRE ) has quickly solidified its position as the most prospective and potentially high-grade rare earths project globally, with all the necessary elements in place for the project to become the world’s top rare earths province, after having a significant impact in 2023 by becoming the largest resources IPO on the Australian Securities Exchange ( ASX ). Portuguese Rare Earths is located in a mining jurisdiction that is tier one. It is in charge of a vast network of mining tenements that spans more than 4, 000 km2 and nearly the entire province of Rocha da Rochar Critical Minerals. The project is near to exceptional infrastructure, sealed roads, nearby ports, and access to hydroelectric power.
A group of very experienced executives with extensive in-country experience and a proven track record of raising shareholder value and managing mining assets make up the Board and Senior management team. It is obvious that management is completely aligned with shareholders and committed to the longer term because the founders and the Board continue to hold roughly 60 % of the company’s shares, the majority of which are locked up for two years.
Additionally, BRE is well-funded, having successfully completed an initial public offering ( IPO ) for AU$ 50 million at an ASX price of$ 1.47 per share that was significantly oversubscribed. Investors of exceptional caliber, including Gina Reinhardt’s Hancock Prospecting, the coal tycoon Whitehaven Coal, prestigious administrative funds, and a number of sizable family offices, were drawn to the IPO.
Brazilian Rare Earths’s Remarkable Rare Earth Grades
It is not surprising that for a star-studded register was drawn to Portuguese Rare Earths! While many publicly traded companies boast projects with parts per million ( ppm ) 1 grades and the best current projects, like Lynas ‘ Mt. Grade is king, as they say, and Weld and MP Materials ‘ Mountain Pass have grades ranging from roughly 6 to 8 % Total Rare Earths Oxides ( TREO ), 2 BRE has recently announced significant intercepts as high as 34 %. In fact, BRE’s just published diamond drilling results for their extremely high-grade Monte Alto Project had a weighted average of 18.8 %TREO. Fig. The JORC Reserve grades of the main rare earth deposits around the world are compared to the average caught grades shown in the graph 2 below.
However, a closer look at these figures shows that these outcomes are also more remarkable than they first seem. Readers must be aware that unusual earths are made up of 17 chemical elements with a wide range of uses and values. For instance, terbium ( Tb ) trades for more than US$ 1, 000 per kilogram while cerium ( Ce ) only deals for a few dollars per kilo. Rare earth elements ( REE ) are becoming more and more important as the world transitions to sustainable energy, particularly in the production of high-strength permanent magnets for wind turbines and electric vehicles.
The BRE method for grades
Going forward, it is anticipated that the so-called “light magnet rare earths” neodymium ( Nd ) and praseodynium( Pr ), as well as the “heavy magnet rarely earth’s dysprosium, terbium,” and others will be in high demand, with many experts forecasting significant supply deficits and material price appreciation. Examining the underlying grades of the various rare earth elements that make up TREO is more crucial than concentrating on the head grades ( TRATO ). Given that Tb now trades at about 1, 000 times the price of cerium, a project with an extremely high TREO count made up entirely of Ce may be significantly less valuable than one whose grade is entirely composed of Bt.
In light of this, the common Nd+Pr grades intersected by BRE are an astounding 3.0 % higher than the overall grade of the majority of developers! The average Dy+Tb grade is currently 0.15 %. The highest DyTb grades in Australia are obtained by Northern Minerals Limited ( ASX: NTU), which has 0.073 %.
However, BRE also has significant levels of other extremely valuable elements, such as Scandium ( Sc ) at 193 ppm and Niobium ( Nb), which make the bre-controlled Rocha da Rochar Critical Minerals Province one of the most fascinating geological discoveries in the world.
Programs for priority exploration
Also, BRE recently disclosed its purchase of the Sulista Rare Earths Project, located about 80 kilometers west of Monte Alto. 1. Gamma spectrometry readings were obtained at three different sites within the same range as those obtained for the ultra-high grade REE-Nb-Sc mineralisation near the Monte Alto Project during on-site reconnaissance sampling of the hard rock outcrops and corestones/boulders, indicating that the Sulista Project may be able to host some extremely high-grade deposits similar to those found at the Mont Alti Project.
The exploration team at BRE thinks that this exceptional high-grade REE-Nb- Sc mineralization is municipal in scope and that there is great potential for fresh, exceptional rare earth discoveries along the entire meteorological trendline that runs down the extensive spine of this world-class province.
At the Velinhas target, which is seven kilometers south of Monte Alto ( see Fig. ), BRE recently started a diamond drill program. 1 ), and has used diamond drill rigs to target high-grade REE-Nb-Sc mineralization at the Sulista Project, where three different, highly-gradable targets have been identified. An increasing number of very potential local drill targets will be placed after these priority exploration programs.
Strategic Significance: BRE’s Role in Global Resource Politics
Currently, the United States and the European Union are aligning their strategies and priorities while moving in the same direction through the recently passed Important Organic Materials Act and European Green Deal. These superpowers place a lot of emphasis on putting an end to China’s dominance over the world market for essential minerals and promoting European sources of these crucial components.
Due to the lack of current production sources for large rare earths outside of China and Myanmar, BRE has strategic significance for American end users. Some Western governments are concerned about this situation because some important military applications rely on technologies that are centered on heavy rare earths. Additionally, the worry about supply chain security is increased by the fact that China is the main source of these materials. The correct team to carry out the strategy, the investors to get it, and the scale to meet a large portion of the Western world’s need for these essential components are all found in BRE.
