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May 2, 2024 8 mins

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Unlock the secrets of revolutionary mineral extraction with Andrew Reid, Managing Director of Brazilian Critical Minerals (BCM), as he takes us on a journey through the company's groundbreaking rare earth discoveries in Brazil. In a landscape dominated by Chinese production, BCM's EMA project emerges as a titan, boasting a resource exceeding a billion tonnes. This episode offers a rare glimpse into the transformative developments reshaping a company with over 15 years of history, once known as BBX Minerals, and how these discoveries are poised to shake the foundations of the global mineral market.

Amidst intricate technical discussions, Andrew reveals how innovative exploration techniques lead to exceptional recoveries and efficient leaching processes, setting BCM apart as a leader in the industry. We delve into the complexities of rare earth element processing and how BCM's approach could redefine the economics of rare earth extraction, offering a beacon of hope for low-cost operations in an era plagued by capex blowouts. Join us for this insightful conversation where the future of mining technology is sculpted from the very earth we stand on.

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Episode Transcript

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Andrew Musgrave (00:01):
Welcome to another episode of ASX Briefs.
I'm your host, andrew Musgrave,and today we are delving into
the world of mineral explorationand advanced processing
technologies with Andrew Reid,the Managing Director of
Brazilian Critical Minerals.
In today's episode, we'llexplore the company's
exploration strategies, theimplications of their recent
discoveries and what the futureholds for their operations and

(00:24):
the broader mineral market.
Andrew, welcome to the show.

Andrew Reid (00:28):
Thank you very much , Andrew.
Pleasure to be here.

Andrew Musgrave (00:30):
Excellent.
So I think what we'll start offwith if we can just give us a
bit of an overview of Braziliancritical minerals.
I know there's been a lot ofchange there in the last sort of
three to six months, so if youcan just talk to the audience
through that, yeah, so BrazilianCritical Minerals, or BCM, is a

(00:54):
rebrand of a company that'sbeen on the ASX for some time,
approximately 15 years.

Andrew Reid (00:57):
It was a company called BBX Minerals.
It has its roots fairly andsquarely in Brazil for the whole
of its history, but over thecourse of the last 12 months
particularly during 2023, itmade two very substantial
discoveries of rare earths up inthe northern part of Brazil.

Andrew Musgrave (01:15):
All right, and if you can just take us through
that discovery of the EMAproject, if you can just
elaborate a bit more on thesignificance of the discovery
and what that means for thecompany.

Andrew Reid (01:27):
Oh look, the EMA project and the recent
announcement just some 10 daysago of a monster resource
exceeding a billion tonnes iscertainly a game changer for us
and for the company.
This is now a mine in waitingthat needs to be developed.
The, the emma project is one ofthe largest rare earth projects

(01:50):
, uh, to be to be defined, um,certainly outside of china.
It is what we call a fullyionic clay deposit.
It has a number of keyattributes that will lend itself
very nicely to low-costoperations, low capex and sort

(02:10):
of low costs going forward,particularly in an environment
now, andrew, where capexblowouts and high capex for
mining projects have tended tobecome the norm over the last
few years.
Tended to become the norm overthe last few years.

Andrew Musgrave (02:24):
Okay, Now the team uses advanced exploration
techniques.

Andrew Reid (02:36):
Can you talk us through how they work and how
beneficial they are for thecompany?
Look, with rare earths andexploration in Brazil it's a
fairly sort of standard processof drilling, not unlike what you
get typically in Australia.
But the understanding of rareearths is quite difficult and
quite technical.
It's a very complex group ofcommodities and it's really

(02:59):
around the assaying and theunderstanding of the composition
of the different elements whichreally can make or break your
project.
And of course you know how andhow much you can recover of
these critical elements in yourbasket really determines the
economics of any project.

(03:20):
Now the Emma project, as oftoday, has quite exceptional
recoveries for rare earths.
We're able to leach it in verylow times, not exceeding about
30 minutes.
The pH that we leach thesolution at is at pH 4, so it's

(03:41):
a very nice pH level, at pH 4,so it's a very nice pH level,
which means that we can use avery low-strength acid to remove
the rare earths off the clayminerals.
So all of these key attributeswe're able to take and it really
is the holy grail of ionic rareearths to have good recoveries

(04:02):
low leach times, low dosagerates of the key reagents, not
having to hit your solution.
So it's ambient temperature andpH 4.
I mean, that's as good as youget and that's so far what the
EMMA project has delivered.

Andrew Musgrave (04:17):
And I think are they I'm assuming they're some
of the challenges aroundprocessing rare earths.
Is that probably going to bethe biggest challenge in the
short term?

Andrew Reid (04:29):
I think look, absolutely there are a lot of.
Particularly if you're a hardrock rare earth deposit, then
there are a number of keychallenges around processing.
Okay, it's not necessarily thecase with ionic clays.
I mean, they are generally inthe clays close to the surface,
so they're very amenable tolow-cost mining.
They normally come at very lowoperating cost structures.

(04:52):
They come with, and they shouldcome with, low capex, right.
But there are a number ofopportunities for this
particular project whichdifferentiates us from other
ionic clays in Brazil andoutside of Brazil, and we will
then enter into a scoping studyover the coming weeks to really

(05:14):
fully evaluate the best pathforward for this particular
project.

Andrew Musgrave (05:18):
And is there a likelihood of that, the tenement
or the resources that you'relooking at there to be expanded
into new areas?

Andrew Reid (05:27):
Look, we are extremely confident that the
first billion tonnes is thatit's just the first billion
tonnes.
There's a lot of opportunity toexpand the resource base.
We've only drilled a smallpercentage of the overall
tenement area that we've got inthat part of the world.
So you know we're veryconfident, but we've got a

(05:49):
billion tonnes.
We've got a mine already in themaking.
The next steps for us are toinfill the drilling, to get it
from an inferred category intoindicated, to continue with the
important metallurgical workthat validates the existing work
that we're doing.
That we've done in Brazil Latelast year and early this year.

(06:10):
We've done some results withANSTO, which are coming back,
but with some quite phenomenalresults, and we'll bring all
that work together inside thescoping study over the next
couple of months to reallyhopefully show that this really
is a project that will turn intoa mine and deserves to be
developed.

Andrew Musgrave (06:30):
Yeah well, there's no doubt of the need for
these rare earth elements in somany products these days.
So, from a shareholderperspective or a prospective
shareholder perspective, howdoes the next sort of three to
six months look?
Or a prospective shareholderperspective?

Andrew Reid (06:44):
how does the next sort of three to six months look
?
I think the flow of positivenews will continue over the next
months.
Like I said, we'll enter into afairly big draw program very
shortly.
It's the draw season now inBrazil.
We've got a lot more workcoming out of ANSO the first
results are due out shortly andthe scoping study.

(07:07):
I think the type of depositthat we've got, the geology that
underlies the deposit, it makesit something very different and
something very special, and wesort of plan on capitalising on
those key differentiators andseeing really what we can do.

(07:28):
So there's a lot of optionsgoing forward and we need to
just fully evaluate them.
But as a shareholder with avery small market cap right now,
I'd be out there buying stockAndrew.

Andrew Musgrave (07:41):
Well, no doubt about it, there's plenty going
on, which is fantastic,particularly in these sort of
minerals as well.
So what we'll do?
We'll keep a very close eye onwhat happens over the coming
months and we look forward tofuture updates and maybe
catching up a little bit downthe track.
Yeah, great, thank you verymuch.
Excellent, okay, andrew, thanksvery much for your time.
Thank you.
That concludes this episode ofASX Briefs.

(08:06):
Don't forget to subscribe andwe look forward to catching you
on our next episode.
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