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BRAZILIAN CRITICAL MINERALS LTD (BCM) - Beyond China: The Breakthrough Deposit Transforming Critical Mineral Security
Rare earth elements are the unsung heroes powering everything from wind turbines to guided missiles, yet securing their supply remains one of the greatest challenges in the transition to clean energy and advanced technologies. In this revealing conversation with Andrew Reid, Managing Director of Brazilian Critical Minerals, we explore a breakthrough that could fundamentally alter the rare earth landscape.
The results from BCM's in-situ pilot trials at their Ema Project in Brazil have exceeded all expectations. Solution grades reaching nearly 8,000 ppm – far surpassing laboratory predictions – demonstrate the exceptional leaching characteristics of their ionic clay deposit. "Every time we ask it to perform, it's been able to deliver quite outstanding results," Reid explains. Perhaps most striking is how the mineralization, while not exceptionally high-grade in the ground, achieves remarkable recovery rates through their innovative extraction approach.
What truly sets the Ema Project apart is its economic profile. With a projected capital cost of just US$55 million – a fraction of what competitors require – BCM has positioned itself to potentially become the next commercial rare earth producer outside China. This capital efficiency isn't just good for investors; it dramatically accelerates the timeline to production at a moment when rare earth prices have surged 30% in recent months. The project's unique composition includes significant quantities of samarium and other middle rare earths crucial for defense and aerospace applications, making it exceptionally valuable for strategic industries.
As the company progresses toward completion of its feasibility study in early 2024, the Ema Project represents a potential turning point in Western efforts to secure critical mineral supply chains. For investors watching the critical minerals space, Brazilian Critical Minerals offers a compelling combination of technical innovation, capital efficiency, and strategic value that's worth following closely. Subscribe to hear more breakthrough stories from companies transforming the resources landscape.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Welcome again to ASX Briefs, your trusted source for insights into the companies shaping Australia's resource and innovation landscape. And today we're joined again by Andrew Reid, the Managing Director of Brazilian Critical Minerals, a company at the forefront of unlocking the next generation of rare earth supply from its world-class ionic absorbed clay deposit at the Ema Project in Brazil.
Andrew, thanks for joining me again and welcome back to the ASX Briefs podcast.
Andrew Reid Guest
Yeah, thanks, Andrew. Good to be here.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Now it's been a while since we last spoke. There's been plenty going on with BCM, so let's jump straight into the project. Now the results from your in-situ pilot trials at Ema have been described as without peer in the Western world. So, what surprised you most about the leaching performance and grade recovery?
Andrew Reid Guest
Look, we've had quite an exceptional run, Andrew, over the last few months with the field trials.
They've actually performed quite exceptionally from a number of different points of view. Particularly the permeability the ability to move the solutions through the clay in, I guess, a speedy manner has been something that's really quite important for ISR projects, and you don't have a project unless you can permeate solutions. So, we've ticked that box now we're very happy with that. The tenure of the grades that we've got out of what we call the pregnant liquor solution that comes out of the ground have been higher than what we achieved in the laboratory. The methodology was exactly the same as what we tested at ANSO. It's exactly the same as what we plan to use when we upscale into full commercial production. But the grades upwards over 5,000 ppm, upwards to nearly 8,000 ppm have been really quite extraordinary for an ionic clay deposit, and I think these numbers really now cement us in a position where we can move forward with confidence in the next phases of study and start to have one eye on future production.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and just touching on those PLS grades which have been outstanding. So, what does it say about your ISR chemistry and the field setup?
Andrew Reid Guest
Look, I think, with what we've been saying for quite a while now, is that the MR mineralization, whilst it's not particularly high from the grades, from the in-situ mineralization, the ability to leach it at very high recovery rates. You know it has been quite well documented now, and this field trial just cements that position further. The flexibility, the ease in which we can extract the rare earths out of the clays has now been documented and that fits pretty nicely with what we've seen over the last 12 months of all of the test work that we've conducted both in Brazil and through ANSTO in Sydney. So, look, it just seems like it's a very user-friendly deposit and it's really every time we ask it to do something, ask it to perform, it's been able to deliver quite outstanding results. So, you know we're pretty happy with where we sit right now.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Now your scoping study outlines a US $55 million capex for the Ema Project, far below industry norms. So, what are the key drivers enabling such a low capital intensity?
Andrew Reid Guest
Look, there's a couple of things the ability to do ISR over the Ema deposit that's the first thing we needed to tick the box on. So, we have a unique set of physical and chemical characteristics which the Ema deposit has, which allows us to implement ISR. I think that's the first key thing. You need all of those things to go right to implement ISR. I would say, in terms of the capex, Andrew, the 55 million, I think that that is low compared to most of the Western world rare earth projects by a factor of somewhere, I'd say, 10 to 20 times lower capex than anybody else. But with ISR this capex number is pretty normal, right. There are literally at the moment I would estimate, somewhere in the order of 400 to 600 of these ISR projects in operation right now as we speak, generating about 30 to 40% of the world's rare earths on an annualized basis, and all of them have the same sorts of characteristics they are low CAPEX and low OPEX and a lot of them are even much lower CAPEX than what we estimated in our scoping study.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Now, the grades you mentioned earlier have been achieved without the need for high-cost processing infrastructure. So does this open the door for faster permitting, ESG alignment and project financing.
Andrew Reid Guest
The path to permitting is exactly the same path that any other mining project has to go through in Brazil, and that path in Brazil is fairly similarly aligned to what you would expect in Australia as well.
There are certain hurdles, there are certain gates, there are a lot of things that the regulators need to look at so just because it's ISR, it doesn't speed up that process need to look at.
So just because it's ISR, it doesn't speed up that process. We want the regulators to do a very thorough study and analysis of our application to make sure that they're comfortable with the permitting, and we're working with the regulators very closely now to get them up to speed with that. But it does certainly help on the project financing side. The ability or the requirement to only raise somewhere around $55 million is going to certainly fast track our financing assessments very, very quickly, and I think one of the key things for the Ema Project is that we're not necessarily going to be tied to commercial banks and other government institutions around the world to back this project. We think that there is a streamlined process to be able to raise this money in the market and for anybody that's tried to raise, you know, substantial amounts of money for critical minerals projects to go through the government process can take a particularly long time. There's a lot of DD and we think that we can eliminate most of that time allocated to that process and that will certainly help fast-track the project.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay and looking at things at a bit more of a macro level. So, given the global momentum to diversify rare earth supply chains away from China, how is the company positioning itself to capitalise on this geopolitical tailwind?
Andrew Reid Guest
I think in the last few months Andrew the rare earths sector has certainly garnered a lot of attention right around the world, it is I think widely accepted now that there needs to be a supply chain diversification, but there aren't that many projects that have the ability to get up and running in the near term. There is only really outside of China two commercial operations on the mining front that produce product and that's really, it's been the case for the last decade. They are very difficult to get up and running and that's despite the fact that we've gone through very high rare earth pricing in the past. The incentive hasn't quite been there to get some of these other projects up and running but with our ability, with our low Capex, our low Opex from the scoping study, we think that Ema is perfectly situated right now to take advantage of this real strong tailwind that we've seen in the pricing, which is up somewhere around 30% over the last few months, and certainly I think it's starting to position Ema in a very favourable position with investors to be able to back it into production in the near term.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and the company has also achieved exceptional recoveries of samarium and other magnet elements. So, what is the significance of this mix for defence, aerospace and the EV battery markets?
Andrew Reid Guest
Look, I think the first thing to say about the composition of the MR rare earth elements is that it is quite unique.
We've got a really good distribution of what's called light rare earths, the neodymium and praseodymium. The middle rare earths, what we call the samarium, europium and gandalium, make up about eight to nine percent of our basket, and that is again quite unusual and it's substantially higher than a lot of our peers. The samarium alone represents about five percent of the rare earth basket that we got, and the samarium cobalt magnets are really really critical and the only products that are used in certain applications in defence and aerospace, particularly, for example, guided missiles and the systems that allow those products to be extremely accurate. You need these sorts of products, and we also have a fairly good distribution of what we call the heavy rare earths, the terbium and dysprosium. So, I think what that composition does for us is it makes us highly marketable and attractive, and we have a number, a wide-ranging number, of conversations occurring in the offtake space and we hope to be able to solidify an offtake agreement in the not-too-distant future.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay now. Lastly, the company is now entering a critical de-risking phase. So, what's your funding strategy as you move towards production, and how should investors respond to the Ema story over the next 12 to 18 months?
Andrew Reid Guest
Oh look, we raised $4 million in June and that money really was raised to back a number of things. We're right in the middle of a feasibility study. We hope to have that completed in Q1 of this year. As I mentioned, we've got a lot of conversations happening around offtake agreements. We've got a lot of conversations happening with the regulators around the permits that are required. So, we need all those things. Once we've got our feasibility study completed, we need to get an independent technical assessment done on that, and then we wrap all that up with a nice bow and then we're certainly ready to take that to the next financing step.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, Andrew. Well, it's been great to chat again to get an update on the company. So, we wish you all the best and we look forward to further updates from BCM in the upcoming months.
Andrew Reid Guest
Great. Thanks very much, Andrew.
Andrew Musgrave Host
That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.