PNN samples 14.03% TREO from Brazilian rare earths project

Our Investment Power Minerals (ASX: PNN) just announced verification assay results from its due diligence sampling program at the Morro do Ferro (MDF) Rare Earths Project in Brazil.

Just yesterday PNN closed the acquisition of the asset.

And today, PNN announced some seriously high grades from samples taken during the due diligence process on the asset.

Grades up to 14.03% TREO and 2.64% MREO:

(source)

The big kicker are those MREO grades at 2.64%.

These are the rare earths required in the production of magnets and are also more often than not on the more scarce side of the basket of rare earths that are in most rare earth projects.

So basically these are the specific rare earths you’d want to be seeing in the results from in a rare earths project.

PNN has confirmed prior that more than 80% of the value in the results come from exactly right there.

These magnetic rare earth oxides (MREO’s) are specifically - neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb) oxides, used in things like Neodymium-Iron-Boron (NdFeB) magnets, Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Wind Turbines:

Generally projects report rare earths in TREO (Total Rare Earth Oxides), the Morro do Ferro project contains such high grades of the MREO’s that PNN has begun to report this subset specifically.

Today PNN has released six duplicate samples that were taken from three separate diamond drillholes on the project.

The results from these confirmed high grades as shown in the historical drilling:

(source)

All quality control measures (high-grade and low-grade certified reference materials plus four blind duplicates) returned values within acceptable laboratory tolerances.

So the historical drilling database from the project PNN has just acquired has just been independently verified.

This is good to confirm because the drilling results were completed back in 2012 and 2014 and for any acquirer, there is always a risk that historical drill data doesn’t hold up under modern verification.

So the foundation that PNN’s exploration plan is being built on (over 4,000m of diamond core drilling and 846.5m of auger drilling done by previous owners), is now de-risked ahead of PNN’s own drill program.

Here is a reminder of the project and the existing drilling results:

(source)

See our deep dive into the asset here: PNN: New Brazil rare earths project. 156 drill holes. High grade hits. SGQ 2.0?

Next we want to see PNN get drilling on the project focusing on two main areas:

• Deeper drilling near the historical results, and
• AC drilling to scout out new mineralised zones

The Morro do Ferro (MDF) project has a “manifesto de mina” permit, meaning PNN has direct ownership rights over the land and doesn’t need to apply for the usual permits to get drilling underway.

So we think drilling shouldn’t be far away.

The latest from the PNN team

Power Minerals (ASX: PNN) Investor Webinar - South American Project development

Just last week, the PNN posted a video of Alistair on site at this project, Morro do Ferro (following on from visits to PNN’s other rare earth and also lithium projects in the week prior.

You can check this out on LinkedIn or X

What we want to see next from PNN

🔲Drilling to get under at the recently acquired rare earths project (Morro do Ferro)

Now that due diligence on the project has been completed and the project formally acquired, we would expect drilling to be not far away.

Yesterday PNN confirmed that it “plans to commence expedited fieldwork programs”:

(source)

So we should get an update on the timelines for this getting underway soon.

🔄Drilling at it’s existing Brazilian rare earths project (Santa Anna)

We want to see PNN doing deeper RC drilling and PNN commenced this program in late January. (source)

We also want to see PNN drill out and define a maiden JORC resource estimate in Brazil to enable comparison to peers, a maiden JORC resource estimate is expected this quarter. (source)

Here are the milestones we are tracking on PNN’s Brazilian rare earths project:

✅ Geophysics/Geochemistry work (geophysics results recently)
✅ Drilling starts (Auger drilling started, RC drilling commenced - today)
🔄 Drilling results
🔲 Maiden JORC resource estimate

🔄Lithium JV deal with Summit for lithium assets

PNN has entered into a non binding term sheet which it aims to turn into a binding agreement within 90 days which would see it form a JV with Summit with PNN retaining 41% control of it and possibly 3 additional projects Summit may bring into the JV.

Summit is capable of providing the DLE extraction and would be tasked with constructing a pilot plant to produce a 5,000t DLE plant and take the JV through to a PFS.

Summit would be able to take entire control of the projects for US$50M, so we await during the 90 day period to see if this deal completes and the final terms of the agreement.