Highlights

  • Monte Alto drilling confirms globally significant ultra high-grade rare earth discovery.
  • Exceptional TREO grades: up to 35.3%, NdPr to 59,645 ppm, heavy rare earths DyTb up to 3,050 ppm.
  • Ore sorting tests deliver >95% recovery and >100% grade enrichment.
  • Low-temperature acid-cure process achieves 97% rare earth recovery at 150°C.
  • Trial Mining Licence secured for Monte Alto, supporting pilot plant operations at Camaçari.
  • Sulista district expands to 17 km strike with multiple high-grade corridors identified.

Brazilian Rare Earths Limited (ASX:BRE) has confirmed Monte Alto as a world-class ultra high-grade rare earth project in Bahia, Brazil. Ongoing drilling, totaling 207 holes and 32,372 metres, demonstrates both large-scale potential and exceptional mineralisation continuity.

Drilling Highlights

  • Wide and continuous high grades: 27.6 m at 19.4% TREO, 23.9 m at 17.4% TREO, and cumulative true thicknesses up to 43 m.
  • Ultra high-grade NdPr enrichment: up to 59,645 ppm (5.96%).
  • Heavy rare earths and Y₂O₃: DyTb up to 3,050 ppm, Y₂O₃ up to 10,975 ppm.
  • Critical mineral co-enrichment: Nb₂O₅ up to 10,498 ppm, Sc₂O₃ up to 303 ppm, Ta₂O₅ up to 612 ppm, U₃O₈ up to 4,047 ppm.

Step-out drilling has extended the Monte Alto North strike by ~350 m to over 1.2 km, while step-out drilling in the south identified a new parallel ultra high-grade corridor, confirming substantial upside potential across the deposit.

Exceptional Ore Sorting Results

Sensor-based ore sorting has been independently validated as an effective beneficiation step for Monte Alto:

  • Grade enrichment: Up to 2x increase, with feed grades of 12.4% TREO upgraded to 27% TREO in a single pass.
  • High recovery: Cascade sorting delivered 95–99% recovery with 1.3x–1.7x grade uplift factors.
  • Efficient waste rejection: ~25% of feed rejected as waste with <0.3% rare earth loss.
  • Reduced capex and opex: Early waste rejection and pre-concentration reduce downstream processing intensity.

This approach supports a simplified, environmentally friendly dry-processing flowsheet with high system efficiency.

Low-Temperature Processing: 97% Rare Earth Recovery

BRE’s metallurgical optimisation program, conducted at CDTN, validated a low-temperature acid-cure process at 150°C, eliminating the need for high-temperature (>250°C) rotary kilns. Key outcomes:

  • High extraction performance: Scale-up test with a 15 kg composite achieved peak recovery of 97% TREO and 89% uranium.
  • Cost and energy advantage: Low-temperature processing reduces energy intensity, opex, and capital requirements.
  • Scalability: Results support integration into a mine-to-product value chain combining high-yield ore sorting with low-temperature hydrometallurgical processing.

This enables the production of NdPr-, DyTb-, and uranium-rich products for direct feed into BRE’s Camaçari pilot plant.

Trial Mining Licence Secured

Monte Alto has been granted a Trial Mining Licence from Brazil’s National Mining Agency (ANM), authorising extraction of up to 2,000 tonnes per annum of direct-ship product.

  • Licence supports customer offtake evaluation and metallurgical testing.
  • Facilitates commissioning of BRE’s pilot plant at the Camaçari Petrochemical Complex, on schedule for Q3 2026.
  • Enables low-impact, quarry-scale development with dry processing, minimal water use, and no tailings dams.
  • Next federal permitting milestone: submission of the Economic Development Plan in Q2 2026.

This milestone represents a key step toward full commercial operations, integrating ultra high-grade mineralisation with efficient processing.

Sulista Rare Earths District Expansion

BRE’s exploration program at Sulista, 80 km southwest of Monte Alto, continues to expand the district-scale opportunity:

  • Strike extension: Sulista now spans +17 km across multiple mineralised corridors.
  • Sulista East: Defined over 1 km strike, depths >230 m, true thicknesses up to 40 m, remaining open along strike and at depth.
  • Sulista South: New diamond drilling program (>10,000 m) underway, confirming high-grade mineralisation with up to 11.8% TREO, NdPr 26,846 ppm, DyTb 1,911 ppm.
  • Sulista North: Emerged as a major growth corridor, with surface grades up to 19.2% TREO, supported by geophysical vectors indicating fertile hard rock sources.

Sulista is emerging as a high-grade district anchored by multiple deposits, complementing Monte Alto in BRE’s hub-and-spoke rare earth strategy.

Integrated Mine-to-Product Strategy

BRE is progressing a vertically integrated approach combining:

  1. High-grade, ultra-large-scale mineralisation at Monte Alto and Sulista.
  2. Sensor-based ore sorting for high recovery and grade uplift.
  3. Low-temperature hydrometallurgical processing at Camaçari.
  4. Direct-ship products for pilot plant and customer evaluation.

This integration supports efficient end-to-end recovery, lower capital intensity, and environmental advantages, positioning BRE as a leading developer of high-grade rare earths and critical minerals in Brazil.