Power Minerals has formed a strategic partnership with Brazilian mining company EDEM to advance the Santa Anna niobium carbonatite project in Goiás State, Brazil.
The move follows a binding letter of intent signed earlier this month for an exclusive option to acquire the project.
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EDEM discovered the Santa Anna project in 2021 and is currently the project vendor.
Under the strategic partnership, Power Minerals will focus on exploring and developing the Santa Anna project’s critical minerals, while EDEM will concentrate on the project’s phosphate potential.
Both companies will also explore other collaborative opportunities within EDEM’s project portfolio.
Power Minerals will conduct due diligence for the acquisition, which could boost the company’s profile as a South American-focused clean energy metals explorer and developer.
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By GlobalDataEDEM will provide technical support and an auger drill rig for Power Minerals’ upcoming due diligence drilling campaign at a fraction of the usual cost.
Power Minerals managing director Mena Habib said: “This strategic partnership offers strong benefits to Power and EDEM. The chance to secure a project opportunity such as Santa Anna is rare, and being able to tap into the expertise, knowledge and local network of EDEM would certainly help us accelerate work on the project, if our due diligence stacks up and we move ahead with its acquisition.
“EDEM has been looking for a partner to work with on this project and can provide Power with support that would vastly increase our ability to move Santa Anna forward and deliver value to our shareholders. We are already seeing the fruits of this partnership with significant cost savings across the drilling, staff and laboratory analysis.”
Santa Anna has a comprehensive drilling database and is prospective for rare earth elements (REEs) and phosphate, with significant REE mineralisation identified in preliminary assessments. The project’s extensive undrilled areas offer further exploration potential.
Exploration permits are in place, and Power Minerals plans to conduct at least 2,000m of reverse circulation drilling to confirm an exploration target as per the 2012 JORC Code.
Power Minerals has also completed a $1.3m (A$2.02m) placement to fund niobium, gallium and REE exploration.
Following successful initial drilling and acquisition completion, Power Minerals intends to delineate a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate.
In August 2024, Power Minerals closed the acquisition of the Lítio niobium project in Brazil from Ita Iron Mineracao after completing legal due diligence.
