Key Highlights

  • INCRA's Amazonas office formally approved a land access agreement covering Mining activities on INCRA-controlled land within the Ema Project area.
  • The approval still requires final ratification from INCRA in Brasília, and a separate certificate states INCRA raises no impediment to environmental licensing continuing.
  • Development environmental licensing from IPAAM and rare earth trial mining licences from ANM remain pending.

Brazilian Critical Minerals Limited (ASX:BCM) announced on 15 October 2026 that INCRA Manaus, the Amazonas office of Brazil's National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform, has formally approved the land-consent agreement for the Ema Rare Earth Project near Apuí in Amazonas. The company describes the Ema Project as an ionic adsorption clay rare earth project being developed using in-situ recovery.

What the approval covers

The application concerns INCRA's consent for the partial overlap of the Ema Project with the Juma settlement in the municipality of Apuí. It relates to the land title formalisation process for local landholders and farmers previously announced on 16 September 2026. The approval document relates to a portion of the Ema tenements still controlled by INCRA that awaits final transfer of title to individual landowners.

The approval is not yet final. The release states that the document still requires final ratification from INCRA in Brasília, and BCM says it will continue working with INCRA there to progress that step.

Link to environmental licensing

BCM explains that final consent from INCRA Manaus is a condition set by the Amazonas Environmental Protection Institute (IPAAM) for granting the environmental licence. The company therefore says the sign-off opens the way for final environmental approval. It also received a separate certificate stating that INCRA raises no impediment to environmental licensing continuing. In its approvals table, the no-impediment certificate is marked received in October 2026, with final consent still pending, and development environmental licensing by IPAAM is listed as pending with assessment progressing.

Approvals table

The announcement includes a table of milestones. Exploration licences for Ema and Ema East, covering tenements 880.107/2008 and 880.184/2016 of approximately 189 km², are granted by the National Mining Agency (ANM). IPAAM granted a two-year ISR field-trial water-use permit in March 2025 for pilot water pumping and hydraulic testing, and approved magnesium sulphate use for pilot permeability and leach testing in April 2025.

ANM approved final exploration reports for both tenements in June 2026, which the company says supports progression to mining applications. BCM also reports ANM acceptance and authorisation for the applications to progress. The INCRA public informative hearing was completed in September 2026. Rare earth trial mining licences from ANM are listed as pending, with applications progressing.

Project description and next engineering step

BCM states that the project uses a magnesium sulphate solution to recover rare earth elements from the mineralised clay profile, with the recovered rare earths processed into a Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate suitable for export and Downstream refining. The company describes the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage as the next engineering step in its strategy to de-risk the project. The announcement does not give a timetable for the remaining approvals, nor any Capital cost, production or resource figures.

Approvals grouped by authority

Grouped by authority, the table shows the following. ANM has granted the exploration licences, approved the final exploration reports and accepted the mining applications to progress, while rare earth trial mining licences remain pending. IPAAM has granted the ISR field-trial water-use permit and approved the magnesium sulphate use, with development environmental licensing pending and assessment progressing.

INCRA completed its public informative hearing in September 2026, a procedural step for federal settlement land access, and issued the no-impediment certificate in October 2026. Final consent remains pending, which is the item the Amazonas approval and the Brasília ratification are intended to resolve. The announcement defines ANM as the National Mining Agency, INCRA as a federal government authority for public administration and IPAAM as the Amazonas Environmental Protection Institute.