Australian exploration company Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI) today reports its Caldeira Project in Brazil is the world’s highest grade ionic adsorption clay rare earth element (REE) deposit.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Meteoric Resources Executive Chairman Dr Andrew Tunks says the grades announced today (1 May 2023) in a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for Caldeira are 3 to 4 times higher than other rare earth developers.
Tunks notes the remarkable ‘high-grade’ resource above a cut-off 3,000ppm equates to 115 million tonnes at a grade of 4,072 ppm TRE, adding “this is literally off the charts and makes this the highest-grade deposit yet discovered globally”.
The 2012 JORC-compliant MRE is 409Mt @ 2,626 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) at a 1,000ppm cut-off. The magnet rare earth oxides (MREO) grades are 631ppm, comprising 24% of the TREO basket.
At a 2,000ppm cut-off, Tunks tells this news service the MRE is 271Mt @ 3,146ppm TREO, noting a ‘higher’ grade cut-off allows for the evaluation of ‘high-grade’ zones forming priority targets for future drilling. At this higher grade cut-off, the company says MREO grades are 815ppm, comprising 26% of the TREO basket.
“The resource is enormous, as I say, nearly half a billion tonnes and we need to look at that resource in a clever way”
The Exec Chairman explains to Mining.com.au: “The resource is enormous, as I say, nearly half a billion tonnes and we need to look at that resource in a clever way. So we will start looking at the high-grade areas. If you look at it with a higher grade cut-off, there’s still well over 200 million tonnes at over 3,000ppm and we think that with the drilling areas that have been identified already, there’s a substantial opportunity to start some very large open pits that would probably have grades in excess of 4,000ppm.”
Moving forward, the Executive Chairman says the company will continue to drill at the project to increase the confidence of the resources at Caldeira which will be followed by Feasibility Studies.
“What we need to do now, and what we’re in the process of doing, is starting to drill this out and convert this inferred resource into measured and indicated categories so that we can plan a mine. This is very clearly going to be a very large mine, and you can’t do your Feasibility Studies on an inferred resource.
What does that mean? It means pretty much a year of very intensive drilling that will be combined with metallurgical testwork and the start of planning the mine. And then all the ancillary things that go around that, the environmental, the social, all the work that has to go in around that is underway and will start immediately as well.”
Meteoric reports the MRE comes from just 24% of the Caldeira REE Project area, and only 20% of the combined area in the proposed acquisition announced in late April.
The company says an expanded diamond drilling program is currently testing depth extensions of the clay zone below the maiden resource model. Additionally, a 100,000m aircore (AC) and diamond drilling program is scheduled to begin in the middle of the year to increase confidence in the resource estimate, while a Scoping Study is planned to start in Q4 2023.
Tunks says this is the first time in the company’s history that it has a globally significant project.
“This is an absolute gamechanger. Meteoric has been around for a long time, it’s always been at the small end of the market, and this project is not that. This project is a globally significant project.
These are surface deposits or very close to surface, very low stripping ratio, very low mining costs, no drill and blast, fantastic met (metallurgy), and because of that there are very low capital costs.
This resource is clearly the most significant ionic clay deposit on the planet. It is by far the highest grade, it has more contained metal than anyone else so even though something like Serra Verde is more than twice as many tonnes, it’s less than half the grade.
So we have more rare earths than the project. This is a really significant project and in my opinion, it’s the best rare earth ionic clay on the planet.”
“So we have more rare earths than the project. This is a really significant project and in my opinion, it’s the best rare earth ionic clay on the planet”
Meteoric Resources is an ASX-listed exploration company targeting REEs in Brazil and orogenic gold in Western Australia. The company’s portfolio includes the Caldeira REE Project in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and the Palm Springs Gold Project in Western Australia. Meteoric also holds a 15% interest in the Webb Diamond Joint Venture (JV) Project in Western Australia, with the remaining 85% held by private company CGN Resources.
Images: Meteoric Resources NL
