Pioneer Lithium Ltd (ASX: PLN), a fairly new explorer whose interest – up until now – has been in Canada, has picked up more than 73 thousand hectares of land in Brazil which it anticipates will be prospective for rare earths mineralisation, given the territory’s underlying geology.
The tenements comprise the Verde Valor project, and are located in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia, where explorers have increasingly come looking for rare earth plays, attracted by the knowledge that the country is believed to host the greatest reserves of these minerals in the world.
More specifically, a major coincident thorium-uranium radiometric anomaly has been identified at the Verde Valor tenements, and for Pioneer this is just the beginning, as it has applied for around 730 square kilometres of tenements within Bahia State, which is prospective for clay-hosted rare earth deposits.
Pioneer Lithium executive chairman Robert Martin said the attraction to Brazilian rare earth was understandable given demands and the richness of the territory.
“The Verde Valor Project presents an excellent opportunity for Pioneer to enter the fast-growing Brazilian critical minerals market,” he said.
“The staking of these highly strategic tenements in no way takes our eyes off our flagship Root Lake lithium tenements in Ontario, but simply adds additional value for our shareholders whilst we finalise preparations for our maiden Root Lake drilling campaign.
“We believe Verde Valor represents an excellent opportunity to enter a world class jurisdiction for highly sort after clay-hosted rare earths which are paramount in the green energy transition, and will fully complement our other strategic critical minerals assets.”
Pioneer Lithium is trading at 16c.