Core Energy Minerals has signed a binding agreement with Rio Tinto Desenvolvimentos Minerais, a fully owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, to acquire 100% of the Itambe Project in Brazil.
The Itambe Project is located in Bahia State in north-eastern Brazil, close to the northern border of Minas Gerais.
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Bahia is a recognised mining jurisdiction. This region benefits from strong infrastructure including access to hydropower, proximity to Vitória da Conquista airport approximately 60km away (with daily commercial flights from São Paulo) and a port at Ilhéus roughly 200km to the east.
The project comprises 23 granted tenements covering a total area of 32,791 hectares. While the previous focus was on lithium exploration, Core intends to explore the broader project area for rare earth element (REE) mineralisation.
Core Energy Minerals managing director Tony Greenaway said: “We are extremely excited to be acquiring the Itambe Project in Brazil from Rio Tinto.
“The vast landholding is extremely prospective for rare earths. Rio Tinto, who were exploring the region for lithium, had previously identified a large REE anomaly defined by soil sampling with encouraging results of up to 5,123ppm [parts per million] TREO [total rare earth oxide].
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By GlobalData“The available airborne radiometric survey data shows positive correlation with the geochemical anomalies associated with intense U-Th-K [uranium-thorium-potassium], highlighting the potential for extending the known anomalies as well as areas that are untested. Consistent coherent anomalies remain open in all directions.
“The Itambe Project is complementary to our existing Tunas REE project in southern Brazil, where we have recently announced similar, highly encouraging early-stage shallow auger drilling results highlighting high-grade TREO associated with clay rich saprolite.”
The work finished by Rio Tinto comprised conceptual regional targeting, first pass geochemical surface sampling and a four-hole auger test programme intended to assess the suitability of this drilling method in the area.
This work covered around 7% of the total tenement holding and has outlined three separate zones of widespread high-grade REE anomalism in the southern portion of the project, with the remaining areas being completely untested.
Additional studies by Core are required to better characterise the host rocks and the broader mineralising systems, and to determine the most likely source rocks responsible for the observed geochemical anomalism.
The transaction terms include a purchase price of $200,000 (A$305,068) in cash and a 1.75% net smelter return (NSR) royalty.
The cash consideration is payable within 30 days of the execution of the binding agreement.
Due diligence regarding technical, geological, economic, legal and environmental aspects has been completed.
Further formal documents, including the royalty agreement, are to be executed within 30 days, concurrently with payment of the cash consideration.
The transaction remains subject to statutory and regulatory compliance in Brazil.
Core Energy Minerals considers the largely untested tenement package to hold strong potential for further mineral occurrences and new target areas, with all anomalies identified so far remaining open.
The next steps for exploration include detailed geological mapping, systematic soil sampling to further define the potential of the tenement package and target definition for systematic auger drilling over main anomalies.
Core Energy Minerals is a critical mineral exploration company with a portfolio of critical mineral and uranium assets in Australia and Brazil.
