Brazilian Rare Earths confirms district-scale discovery at Pelé
Brazilian Rare Earths (ASX: BRE) has discovered a new district-scale rare earth exploration project known as Pelé 60 kilometres south-west of it Monte Alto project.
The greenfields project is believed to be prospective for ultra-high-grade rare earth-niobium-scandium mineralisation with an exploration target area more than 30 times larger than the company’s world-class Monte Alto project.
It was discovered using the same exploration pathfinders that delineated Monte Alto in 2021, confirming hard rock rare earth outcrops and high-grade monazite sands at surface.
Initial ground reconnaissance work at the Pelé Target 1 has discovered the largest continuous hard rock monazite cumulate outcrop since exploration commenced in the province.
The outcrop currently extends over a strike of 30 metres within a larger 1km north-northeast potential outcrop trendline.
Exceptional potential
Latest assay results from a wider regional exploration program combined with initial results from an exploration dataset generated by former owner Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) are believed to have confirmed the “exceptional potential” for new discoveries across the Brazilian Rare Earths acreage.
The acreage was strategically acquired to secure control of the Volta do Rio Plutonic Suite (VRPS) mineralised trendline, which stretches more than 160km down the spine of the prolific Rocha da Rocha rare earth province.
The VRPS is hosted within the Archean-age Jequie complex and forms the prime exploration target zone for ultra-high grade rare earths-niobium-scandium mineralisation.
Fourth discovery
Managing director Bernardo da Veiga said Pelé was the company’s fourth greenfields rare earth discovery within the province.
“The scale of the exploration opportunity is exceptional and the recent discovery of a massive monazite mineralised outcrop at Pelé Target 1 indicates the potential for a major rare earth endowment,” he said.
“We intend to accelerate plans for a maiden diamond drilling program at Pelé once the extensive assay results from Rio’s dataset have been received.”
The assays will cover 11,000m of high-priority drill holes and are expected to complement initial results for 152 holes at Pelé Target 1 that confirmed shallow mineralisation with grades of more than 1% total rare earth oxides.