BBX Minerals accelerates drilling at Ema rare earth project in Brazil

BBX Minerals (ASX: BBX) is preparing to accelerate drilling activities within its ongoing rare earth element (REE) exploration work at the Ema project in Brazil.

The company currently has two four-man drill crews operating at Ema and is expecting to add another crew within the next week.

BBX has already identified unique potential at its Ema and Ema East leases, where initial studies have identified deposits which closely match the prolific ion-adsorption rare earth elements (iREE) mineralisation found in felsic volcanic rocks in southwest China.

Studies have noted similarities between deposits in the Guangxi region of southwest China and the 6m to 10 m of high-grade, near-surface REEs the company has encountered within the regolith developed on top of felsic rocks at Ema.

BBX believes that each square kilometre of high-grade mineralisation at Ema represents an enriched REE horizon of approximately 12 million tonnes, indicating a high potential for an economic deposit of around 200 million tonnes at 800 to 1,200 parts per million of total rare earths oxides (TREO).

Metallurgical testing agreement

To help solidify those initial assessments of the Ema rare earth element potential, the company has signed a contract with CETEM (Federal Research Institute for Mineral Beneficiation) in Rio de Janeiro for initial ionic-clay metallurgical testing.

In the meantime, the company is awaiting assay results from an initial 13 of the 26 recently completed auger drill holes.

The latest auger holes targeted areas of interest identified from specific drill hole samples from a 2021 drilling campaign and the company’s subsequent definition of 14 high priority targets located within the Ema and Ema East leases.

Promising earlier results

Earlier assay results highlighted Ema’s potential, including 8.0 m at 1,607 parts per million TREO from surface and 7.8 m at 776 parts per million TREO from 4 metres in separate holes.

The previously released assay results also revealed enriched horizons for rare earth mineralisation, which led to BBX to adapt its drilling plans.

The first 26 holes in the latest auger programme commenced on Plateau 9 with holes 200m apart. BBX updated its drilling efforts to a 400m square grid surrounding holes EMD017, where assays returned 9.0 m at 890 parts per million TREO from 10 metres.

To date the recent auger programme has drilled a total of 355m, with an averaging depth of 13.6m.

A local SGS laboratory is now testing the initial assay and BBX is confident it will receive the results within the next six weeks.

High-grade zones

The current exploration program is targeting high-grade zones assessed to contain mineralisation of at least 800 parts per million TREO within a 189 square km area, which may potentially contain rare earth mineralisation of the ionic adsorbed clay type REE.

BBX is aiming to use the information to support the estimation of a potential inferred mineral resource estimate by the end of 2023.

The company is an up-and-coming player in the southern Amazon region of Brazil, where it holds 419.1 square kilometres of exploration tenements within the Colider Group and adjacent sediments, which has been identified for its gold, PGM, base metal and ion-adsorption rare earth elements potential.