BRAZILIAN CRITICAL MINERALS LTD (BCM) - BCM’s Ema Project Explained From Giant Clay Resource To Low Cost In Situ Recovery

A rare earth project that aims to get to production without crushers, grinding circuits, or a high-cost processing maze gets our attention fast. We sit down again with Andrew Reid, Managing Director of Brazilian Critical Minerals (ASX: BCM), to unpack the Ema ionic adsorption clay deposit in Brazil and why in situ recovery (ISR) could be a genuine cost and schedule advantage for a new Western rare earth supply source.

We walk through the latest drilling at Ema and what it says about scale and consistency, alongside the updated mineral resource estimate that underpins the move toward a bankable feasibility study (BFS). Andrew explains the vertical profile many clay deposits show, including enrichment toward the base of the clay, and why Ema’s rare earth mix stands out. We also dig into the commercial reality of rare earths: buyers care about the basket, so discussions around neodymium praseodymium and the presence of heavies like dysprosium and terbium can shape offtake interest and downstream pathways.

From there, we get practical on execution risk. Andrew shares where the BFS work is focused now, why BCM is doing capital cost estimation in-country in Brazil, and how sourcing standard equipment locally can support credibility. We also cover BCM’s collaboration agreement with an established ISR operator and the strategic tailwinds Andrew is seeing in US-facing conversations about critical minerals and rare earth supply chain security.

If you’re tracking ASX rare earth stocks, Brazilian critical minerals, or the path from feasibility to financing, this is a grounded look at what matters next: BFS completion, permitting, offtake, and bankable project funding. Subscribe, share the episode with a mate who follows rare earths, and leave a review with the key risk or catalyst you think will decide the outcome.

Transcript

Andrew Musgrave

Welcome back to the ASX Bruce Podcast. And today we welcome back Andrew Reid, the Managing Director of Brazilian Critical Minerals Limited. BCM is advancing one of the most compelling rare earth stories on the ASX, a world-class ionic absorption clay deposit in Brazil. Andrew, great to have you with me again, and welcome back to the podcast.

Andrew Reid

Yeah, thanks for having me on the show, Andrew.

Andrew Musgrave

Now, Andrew, it's been a while since we last spoke. So, for investors that are new to the BCM story, can you just provide a brief overview of the company?

Andrew Reid

Yeah, look, BCM, we are now working towards developing the lowest capital rare earth project in the Western world. We've got a very large resource. We've largely de-risked the metallurgy, and we're using the approach of in- situ to extract the rare earths out of the clay. And for your listeners, in- situ recovery in the rare earth sector is not just a simple low capex, low opex way of getting the rare earths out of the ground, but it's actually also the most common technique for extracting rare earths. There are literally hundreds of these projects of exactly the same type and size and nature of what we are attempting to do in Brazil. And it leans very nicely for bringing this project into development in the not-too-distant future.

Andrew Musgrave

Now the March quarter delivered some impressive drilling results across 49 holes at Ema. So, can you walk us through what these results are telling you about the consistency and scale of the deposit and what it means for the recently released MRE?

Andrew Reid

I guess we've always known that we've got we had the potential to have something quite large at Emma. What the drilling confirms now is that the breadth of the mineralization, which is now defined over 80 square kilometres, you can I guess envisage that as a large blanket of clay, which is highly enriched in rare earths. And just about everywhere that we've drilled on our on our tenure has intersected rare earths. This resource that we just put out, 1.07 billion tons that was released last week, contained about 390 odd million tons in the indicator category. We've done quite a lot of drilling, and this resource is now probably one of the largest ionic clay in situ recovery rare earth resources in the world, and certainly allows us to underwrite the bankable feasibility study that's well underway.

Andrew Musgrave

And you're seeing heavy rare earth elements reach over 31% of MREO composition at the base of the holes. And so, how significant is that enrichment zone in terms of the economics of an in-situ recovery operation?

Andrew Reid

Look, the distribution of the rare earths down the hole or in the sort of the vertical plane, the vertical profiling, as we tend to call it, is pretty normal and pretty standard for clay deposits. They do tend to be enriched towards the base of the of the clay profile, sitting directly on top of the bedrock. This is because of the weathering effects over time. The water table it goes up and it goes down, it does leach the rare earths, and the rare earths do settle out and concentrate towards the base. But the Ema project has we have quite an unusual composition of rare earths. We think it's very, very attractive for our off takers that are seriously looking at the moment. We have a really nice distribution, not just of the heavies Andrew, but certainly one of the highest compositions of neodymium and praseodymium, the lights, what we call the middle rare earth group, the samarium, europium, and gadolinium is also quite elevated. And then, as you as you mentioned, we have dysprosium terbium. So, it really is quite unique, the composition, and certainly that's allowed us to be able to really push forward this project at quite a rapid rate.

Andrew Musgrave

Looking now at the Bankable feasibility study, the BFS is now averaging 85% completion across all major work packages. So that's a significant milestone. Where is the focus now as you push towards completion? And are you still on target for Q2 2026?

Andrew Reid

Yeah, we've certainly put out guidance that we're targeting Q2 of this year. There's only a couple of months left, but we are working very hard now and very focused on delivering that outcome. The remaining focus clearly sits around the report writing, you know, feasibility studies are very big bodies of work. We are still waiting to get the final costing and pricing of the process plant. The remaining parts of the processing or the pricing around the leaching, the extraction side of things has already been priced, but it's just the process plant, the civil foundations, the earthworks, and some of the equipment that we need to purchase that we're waiting on. And then it's yeah, heads down to get the report done.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and the majority of your capital cost estimation is being done on the ground in Brazil. So, what does that tell us about the company's approach to ensuring cost accuracy and project credibility ahead of the financial model?

Andrew Reid

I think there was I think there was never a scenario where we weren't contemplating doing the getting the pricing done in country. We are buying the majority of the items that can go into this process plant inside the country. There is little to no bespoke processing equipment that we are purchasing because the capital cost is just so low. We don't have any equipment, we don't do any crushing or grinding or agitation. There's very little concrete and steel in this setup. So just about everything that we can purchase, we can get off the shelf in Brazil right now.

Andrew Musgrave

You've also just signed a collaboration agreement with Southern Alliance Mining, the operator behind one of the world's largest ISR rare earth operations at the Gerik Mine in Malaysia. So, what does this partnership mean for BCM and the Ema project?

Andrew Reid

Yeah, I think this is, you know, it's just a really important milestone. And I think for anybody that's ever built a project, you know, if you've got a partnership with someone that's done it before, done it recently, and has continued to excel and exceed expectations, you know, you want a bit of that dusting to come over on your side of the fence. And if you have a collaboration where you can get access to some of this knowledge and information and perhaps you know share things in return, then I think that can only be to the benefit of all of the shareholders to BCM. And we are very lucky that we have quite close collaboration with SAM and we look forward to working with them.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and you've been on the ground in the US at PDAC in Toronto and in Brazil engaging with off-take partners. So, how are these conversations translating into commercial discussions for BCM?

Andrew Reid

I think you know the key takeaway from that trip was that the sentiment for critical minerals, the sentiment for rare earths attached to the to the military requirements of the US is very, very strong. And I think that certainly people understand the national and strategic requirement for rare earths in the US. And clearly the government is now willing to, I guess, fill out the rare earth supply chain in the areas that they didn't have access to as quickly as possible. And they're willing to buy and pay very large sums of money to make sure that they've got access to those products that can keep I guess for them, the military machine rolling. So those conversations were extremely important. And it's very clear that there are very little Western products available that can go into the US right now. So having a project like Ema that's near term, have a feasibility that's just a matter of months away and can be brought online very quickly and is the cheapest in the Western world, sets us apart from all of our peers, puts us in a really good position to have really interesting and very thoughtful conversations with a whole range of off-takers. And certainly, that's what happened, and we continue to engage with them over the coming months and look forward to partnering up with someone that you really wants our product and can take it downstream somewhere into the Western world.

Andrew Musgrave

Now, Andrew, just to wrap things up, what are some of the key catalyst’s investors should be watching out for over the next 12 months as BCM moves through the BFS permitting and potential off-take agreements?

Andrew Reid

Yeah, we've got a really busy schedule between now and particularly the end of the year. The main focus for us right now is on three things completing the bankable feasibility study, getting that out this quarter, as you mentioned, working closely with the regulators in Brazil through the different permitting stages. Those conversations can continue to happen on a regular basis. So, we're really happy with that. And certainly, we want to move through to project financing, particularly in the second half of this year. To do that, I really need an off-take agreement that banks the project underwrites it through the financing stage. So, they're really the key focus groups for us over the next few months.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, Andrew. Well, it's been great have you having you back on the podcast again. So, thanks for your time, and we look forward to further updates from BCM in the upcoming months.

Andrew Reid

Thank you very much, Andrew.

Andrew Musgrave

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe, and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.