US Funds and Local Investors Back Meteoric Resources’ Plans for Caldeira REE Project in Brazil

A number of US investment funds have shown their support for Meteoric Resources’ (ASX: MEI) plans to develop a Tier 1 rare earth element (REE) project in Brazil.

The American backers, in concert with existing and new international and domestic institutional investors, helped Meteoric’s $42.5 million placement finish oversubscribed as the company moves toward a decision to develop the Caldeira project.

Priced at $0.14 per share, a 9.7% discount to Meteoric’s last traded price on 18 July of $0.155, the placement will leave Meteoric well-capitalised with a pro-forma cash balance in excess of $53 million.

Potential US Supplier

Located in the state of Minas Gerais, the Caldeira project is ideally positioned to become a long-term supplier to a US market desperate for new REE sources.

A lack of domestic rare earth developments and threats of a tightening of supplies from China make nearby REE projects such as Caldeia of particular interest to the US government and local investors alike.

Analysts are forecasting US demand for REEs – particularly rare earth permanent magnets  – to increase significantly over the next decade, driven by continued growth in electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure.

Caldeira FID Looming

Chief executive officer Stuart Gale said the funds would go a long way to help Meteoric move towards a final investment decision (FID).

“The new funding provides significant capacity to further invest and optimise the pre-feasibility study (PFS) released this week,” Mr Gale said.

“This includes the establishment of a pilot plant at Poços de Caldas to produce bulk samples of mixed rare earth carbonate for metallurgical test work, customer validation and downstream development.”

“The Caldeira Project stands out as having the scale and both the technical and economic attributes required to support these new supply chains—this funding provides us with the capacity required to complete all work programs and development that will take us to FID.”

Scoping Studies and PFS

Released earlier this week before the company’s shares went into a trading halt ahead of the placement, Meteoric believes the Caldeira PFS builds on outcomes previously outlined in a pair of scoping studies the company completed during the second half of 2024.

Over the intervening 12 months, Meteoric conducted a substantial work program aimed at both de-risking mining and processing elements at Caldeira and delivering more robust cost estimates based around vendor pricing.

The program included more than 57,000 metres of diamond and aircore drilling that generated 31,000 samples for chemical assay and 14,000m of historical auger drilling and sampling, delivering an updated global Mineral Resource Estimate of 1.5Bt @ 2,359 parts per million total rare earth oxides.

Meteoric believes that the the new PFS, which has confirmed Caldeira as a globally strategic, long-life rare earths project with significant growth potential, validates the $30 million it has invested on the project since 2023.