Brazilian Rare Earths (ASX:BRE) has expanded the Monte Alto Project in Brazil to a “district-scale exploration opportunity” after receiving assay results from a regional exploration program.
The $596.62 million market capitalisation company reports the latest assay results highlight the project’s exploration potential across a series of intense district-scale magnetic anomalies that run adjacent to the initial Monte Alto deposit.
These anomalies reveal new, ‘highly prospective’ rare earths exploration corridors that extend 3km to the south and 4km to the southwest of the initial discovery.
As a result, Monte Alto’s targeted exploration area has doubled.
The latest assays from the regional exploration work returned grades up to 14.6% total rare earth oxide, and heavy rare earth grades of up to 6,691 parts per million (ppm) dysprosium oxide, 737ppm terbium oxide, and 74,543ppm yttrium oxide.
CEO Bernardo da Veiga says these results underscore the prospectivity of Monte Alto’s “high grade” rare earths province.
“The discoveries significantly expand Monte Alto’s target exploration area and demonstrate its world-class scale, exceptional rare earth grades and substantial potential for exploration upside,” Veiga says.
“We are thrilled with the exceptionally high-grade heavy rare earths assays from an outcropping discovery located just 2.5km from Monte Alto.”
At Monte Alto, ongoing exploration aims to expand the discoveries and evaluate the potential for large deposits of “high-grade” heavy rare earth mineralisation within the expanded target area.
The company says priority exploration will focus on mapping the extension of the rare earth mineralised system of the VPRS across the broader Monte Alto district-scale exploration area.
To accelerate this exploration program, Brazilian Rare Earths intends to deploy a drone-based geophysical survey system in the coming months to amplify magnetic and radiometric image resolution.
Furthermore, this drone-based survey system will be used to expedite high-resolution geophysical data coverage across the Sulista and Pelé project areas.
Brazilian Rare Earths intends to release the first phase results from the project’s metallurgical study in due course.
Assays are pending from 8,009m of diamond drilling at the Monte Alto deposit, which will also be released in due course.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Brazilian Rare Earths
