PNN confirms high grade niobium at project in Brazil
Our critical minerals Investment Power Minerals (ASX: PNN | OTCQB: PEIMF) just confirmed its secondary asset in Brazil could also host high grade niobium.
We are primarily Invested in PNN for its very high grade rare earths project in the Minas Gerais part of Brazil.
That's the project PNN is currently drilling to convert its 9.2 to 10.7Mt at 7.8% to 9.2% TREO exploration target into a maiden JORC resource.
AND which sits next door to the project $13BN Lynas Rare Earths just acquired:
(source)
(PNN expects to have a JORC resource announced on the project by Q4/Q1, should the drilling data support it).
Yesterday’s announcement came from PNN’s “Santa Anna” Goiás state (also in Brazil).
We also like this project - mainly because the big carbonatite on the project is still relatively underexplored.
The project sits on a carbonatite around ~2.5km across - discovered in 2021, and PNN has been drilling it since 2025 (we covered the drill program here).
(source)
Yesterday PNN confirmed the niobium at Santa Anna sits in “pyrochlore”, the primary mineral source of niobium.
We are not metallurgists OR geo’s - but the key thing we look for with any of these type announcements is whether or not the technicalities marry up against other well understood deposits globally.
And it looks like PNN’s are pyrochlore averaged 68.8% niobium (Nb₂O₅), with a peak of 73.9%, which is at the upper end of major carbonatite-hosted niobium deposits globally.
The results will now feed PNN's planned metallurgical testwork, the step that works out how to recover the niobium
Meanwhile - drilling continues at PNN’s main project
Below is a cross section of the recent assay release (with the other holes shown)
(source)
That news from earlier this week follows last week's results covering 80m to the end of the hole. Today confirms that high grade rare earths extend from surface toward the north.
Not only are the TREO (Total Rare Earth Oxide) grades high, the MREO proportion is also very high compared to peers.
Many peers have high TREO - mostly filled with lighter rare earths in plentiful supply - not the MREOs everyone in the West is scrambling to secure a non-China supply of.
MREO are Magnetic Rare Earth Oxides, the high value ones used in robotics, EVs, military hardware and more, like in these:
Two weeks ago PNN defined a maiden Exploration Target of 9.2 to 10.7Mt at 7.8% to 9.2% TREO, which we covered in more detail here.
The exploration target is not massive from a tonnage perspective, BUT it is very high grade and similar in size to ASX listed, $920M capped Brazilian Rare Earths.
PNN is capped at $59M.
What's next for PNN?
🔄 Results from current drill program
Here are the milestones we are tracking:
- 🔄 More drilling (two rigs currently drilling through to December)
- 🔄 Assay results (partial assays remain from holes 3 & 4, plus the next 14 holes). (source)
- 🔄 Metallurgical test work drilling (samples have been sent for testing. (source)
🔲 Maiden JORC resource estimate
Expected Q4 26/Q1 27 (should the drilling data allow it) - this is the big one for us.
(source)
🔲 Ionic clay potential tested at Morro do Ferro (MDF)
The "free shot" at the style of deposit that made PNN's neighbours worth a combined ~$1BN.
This one is especially relevant now after yesterday’s news with Lynas’s takeover of Meteoric.
