- Brazilian Critical Minerals (ASX:BCM) was formerly called BBX Minerals
- The company is exploring for rare earths in Brazil
- BCM finished up 2024 with $2 million in cash and drill targets for the year ahead
- Shares last traded at 2.5 cents
Brazilian Critical Minerals (ASX:BCM) has published its quarterly for the December 2023 quarter, clocking just over $2 million to start off the new year.
And the company has no shortage of leads to spend that money on.
BCM defined rare earth (REE) mineralisation at the Ema asset over an area of 7km x 6km with mineralisation “open in all directions”.
The company has described its acreage as possessing geological qualities that make it similar to southwest China, home to that continent’s largest known ionic clay REE region.
ESG and metallurgy
BCM starts off the year with data under its belt it can recover up to 61 per cent of REEs from simple processes.
The company has recently completed assembling infrastructure related to its ‘bioleaching’ efforts, seeking to develop green REEs by minimising the need for heavy chemicals (and the question, then, of what to do with them afterwards).
Should BCM make a breakthrough in this area, the company could be at the forefront of a very tantalising market intersection – where ESG and demand for green minerals could meet rare earths, themselves needed for any number of green tech.
Fresh testwork results
The company, to that end, also announced on Monday fresh ammonium sulphate leach test results on the REE ore.
The company found a way in this test to reduce ammonium sulphate needed by 20 per cent, further proving REEs from the Ema asset can be produced with low dosages of acid.
Part of China’s dominance in the REE landscape is its environmental laws, which allow practitioners more methods to dispose of vast quantities of spent liquid acids – in manners that you simply wouldn’t ever see in Australia (for good reasons.)
BCM reported on Monday ending up with a product it described as “high purity REE carbonate concentrate,” with recoveries of “virtually 100 per cent.”
Good grades widespread
What’s more, when you look at all its landholdings in aggregate – BCM has yet to drill some 57 per cent of it.
The company has logged mid-to-high-grade mineralisation in widespread areas on-site with high neodymium praseodymium (NdPr) counts.
Metallurgical testwork has been a key focus for BCM in the recent past and that hard work is starting to pay off.
BCM shares last traded at 2.5 cents.