Circular economy-focused critical minerals company Ionic Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:IXR, OTC:IXRRF) has become the cornerstone investor in a capital raise intended to fund a potentially tier-one iconic clay rare earth project – the Colossus Rare Earths Project in the Poços De Caldas Alkaline Complex of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
IXR has invested A$600,000 in Viridis Mining and Minerals Ltd, the company acquiring the project, to fund exploration and the initial upfront payment for the acquisition itself.
Ionic will also provide its ionic clay rare earth expertise to fast-track the project toward development.
Past exploration on Colossus
The Colossus Project consists of 41 mining licences covering 56 square kilometres within South America’s largest known Alkaline Complex.
Previous owners completed a total of 34 shallow auger drill holes, to a maximum depth of 3 metres, with all holes returning rare earth element (REE) mineralisation.
Considering the shallow nature of the drilling, the results are remarkable, grading up to 3 metres at 2,003 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxide (TREO) with a high-value magnet rare earth oxides (MREO) component of up to 31%.
The project is ripe for exploration, open in all directions and at depth, with negligible levels of deleterious uranium or thorium elements.
The shallow and high-grade nature of this mineralisation is particularly interesting, given ionic absorption clay (IAC) rare earth deposits generally increase in grade at depth, with the lowest grades within the first 5 metres of depth.
To give further credence to the prospectivity of the project, it directly adjoins – and shares the same weathering profile of – the Caldeira Ionic Adsorption Clay Project, which holds a mineral resource of 409 million tonnes at 2,626 ppm TREO.