Magnum Mining Confirms Rare Earth Enrichment Across 8.3km² in Brazil
Key Takeaways
- All 75 RC holes at the Feirinha Prospect have returned assay results, confirming anomalous TREO enrichment across the full 8.3 km² target area at Magnum Mining's 100%-owned Palmares REE Project in Brazil.
- The top intercept — PAL-RC-25-0035 — returned 15m @ 2,190 ppm TREO from surface, including 8m @ 3,372 ppm TREO from 6m, with several other holes delivering high-grade sub-intervals above 3,500 ppm.
- NdPr, the magnet rare earths critical for EV motors and wind turbines, accounts for 19.3% of contained TREO across the programme — a commercially relevant proportion for downstream processing economics.
- Desorption, mineralogical, and variability testwork is the critical next step at Feirinha, as current results are total head grades only and do not yet confirm how much TREO is recoverable through leaching.
- At the flagship Piracanjuba Prospect, nine drill rigs are active across a 10,000 m auger programme with a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate targeted for November 2026, subject to exploration results.
Broad rare earth mineralisation confirmed across 8.3 km² at Feirinha
Assay results are now in for all 75 RC holes submitted for analysis at the Feirinha Prospect — 1,145 m drilled and 1,144 m of analytical support — confirming broad, anomalous TREO enrichment across the approximately 8.3 km² area tested at Magnum Mining and Exploration Limited’s 100%-owned Palmares Rare Earth Element (REE) Project in Bahia, Brazil. Neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr), the principal magnet rare earths, account for 19.3% of contained TREO across the programme.
These results are exploration outcomes from shallow 15 m reverse-circulation (RC) holes. They confirm widespread REE enrichment across the target area but do not constitute a Mineral Resource.
The eight highest whole-hole composite results, reported as total head grades, are:
- PAL-RC-25-0035: 15m @ 2,190 ppm TREO from surface, including 8m @ 3,372 ppm TREO from 6m
- PAL-RC-25-0078: 15m @ 1,755 ppm TREO from surface, including 14m @ 1,810 ppm TREO from surface
- PAL-RC-25-0066: 15m @ 1,071 ppm TREO from surface, including 4m @ 2,492 ppm TREO from 10m
- PAL-RC-25-0013: 15m @ 874 ppm TREO from surface, including 2m @ 3,970 ppm TREO from 4m
- PAL-RC-25-0081: 15m @ 774 ppm TREO from surface, including 2m @ 3,681 ppm TREO from surface
- PAL-RC-25-0062: 15m @ 758 ppm TREO from surface, including 2m @ 3,802 ppm TREO from surface
- PAL-RC-25-0008: 15m @ 672 ppm TREO from surface, including 2m @ 2,265 ppm TREO from 2m
- PAL-RC-25-0010: 15m @ 643 ppm TREO from surface, including 4m @ 1,374 ppm TREO from surface
Antonio Vitor Junior, Managing Director
“These first results from Palmares are highly encouraging and demonstrate broad, anomalous TREO enrichment within approximately 8.3 km² area tested at the Feirinha Prospect. We plan to undertake desorption, mineralogical and variability test work to assess the recoverability and potential significance of the rare earth mineralisation identified.
Our immediate priority remains the flagship Piracanjuba Prospect within the Azimuth REE Project, where our systematic 10,000 m auger drilling programme is underway and we are targeting delivery of a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate in November, subject to exploration results. We look forward to reporting further results from both projects in due course.”
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What rare earth elements are and why magnet REEs matter to investors
TREO, NdPr and what these grades actually mean
TREO stands for Total Rare Earth Oxide — it is the standard measure used in exploration to express the combined content of all rare earth oxide species present in a sample. Think of it as the headline grade number, summing everything from lanthanum through to yttrium.
Not all rare earths carry equal commercial weight, though. NdPr (neodymium-praseodymium) are the critical inputs for the permanent magnets used in electric vehicle motors and wind turbines, which is why their proportion of TREO matters to investors reading exploration results, not just the TREO total.
An important distinction: the grades reported here are total head grades. They represent the raw concentration of rare earth oxides in the rock, not desorbable grades, process recoveries, or product yields. Desorption testwork is the next step required to determine how much of the TREO can actually be recovered under controlled laboratory conditions — and that step has not yet been completed at Feirinha.
The style of mineralisation also matters. Ionic adsorption deposits are REE deposits where rare earths are adsorbed (loosely bound) onto clay minerals in the regolith, making them amenable to low-cost leach recovery. Primary hard-rock mineralisation, such as in pegmatites, typically requires more processing. The current RC head-grade results at Feirinha do not determine which host dominates, which is precisely why the upcoming desorption and mineralogical testwork is significant.
Ionic adsorption clay deposits in Brazil have emerged as a priority exploration target because their regolith-hosted rare earths can be recovered through simple leaching, avoiding the energy-intensive processing required for hard-rock pegmatite ore.
Programme design and what the drill grid reveals
75-hole RC programme on an ~200 m grid
The 75-hole programme was designed on an approximately 200 m grid to test the shallow distribution and depth extension of REE mineralisation across the 8.3 km² Feirinha target area. The programme was drilled to a nominal 15 m depth, making this a shallow screening programme focused on the near-surface regolith profile.
The reporting population covers the complete 70-hole Palmares South programme plus five northern holes. A further 42 northern holes, totalling approximately 630 m, were drilled for topographical and lithological control only and were not submitted for assay. Those 42 holes are excluded from the results and from the plan view, and the five assayed northern holes are not representative of the full northern drilling population.
The ground gamma-ray spectrometry survey, originally acquired between 22 and 30 September 2021 and reprocessed in January 2026, provided spatial targeting context via a thorium grid. The thorium response is an exploration-targeting dataset only and does not define a mineralised envelope.
| Programme Metric | Detail |
|---|---|
| Total holes assayed | 75 |
| Total metres drilled | 1,145 m |
| Analytical support | 1,144 m |
| Target area | 8.3 km² |
| Grid spacing | ~200 m |
| Hole depth | Nominal 15 m |
| NdPr as % of TREO | 19.3% |
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What comes next — testwork, Piracanjuba and the November MRE
Feirinha desorption and variability testwork
No further drilling is planned at the Feirinha Prospect under the current programme. The next phase is selection of spatially and vertically representative composites spanning high, moderate, and lower head grades, NdPr-rich and DyTb/HREO-rich material, at different depths and from both the northern and southern sectors.
Controlled desorption, mineralogical, and variability testwork will then assess mineral hosts, desorbable response, impurities, and radionuclide characteristics. This is the step that will begin to answer the question investors need answered: how much of the TREO identified in the head grades can actually be recovered?
Piracanjuba and the November resource target
While Feirinha moves into testwork, Magnum’s attention remains focused on the flagship Piracanjuba Prospect within the Azimuth REE Project. A systematic 10,000 m auger drilling programme is currently underway at Piracanjuba, with nine drill rigs at site, seven of which are currently operating.
The Piracanjuba rare earth discovery, confirmed as an ionic adsorption clay system, established the geological foundation on which the current 10,000 m auger programme and November resource target are built.
Magnum is on track to deliver a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at Piracanjuba in November, subject to exploration results. That MRE would represent the first formal resource quantification at the flagship project and is the near-term milestone investors should be tracking.
The dual-project pipeline means two active REE fronts are progressing in parallel. Upcoming catalysts to watch include:
- Desorption and variability testwork results from selected Feirinha composites
- Ongoing auger drilling results from the 10,000 m Piracanjuba programme
- Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate at Piracanjuba, targeted for November 2026 (subject to exploration results)
Ready to Explore the Palmares REE Project and Magnum Mining’s Dual-Project Pipeline?
Broad TREO enrichment confirmed across 8.3 km² at the Feirinha Prospect — with NdPr accounting for 19.3% of contained rare earth oxides — positions Magnum Mining’s 100%-owned Palmares REE Project as a compelling early-stage opportunity in Brazil’s emerging ionic adsorption clay district. With desorption testwork now the critical next step at Feirinha and a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate targeted for Piracanjuba in November, two active REE fronts are advancing in parallel.
Investors tracking the rare earth sector can explore Magnum Mining’s full project updates and investment details on Discovery Alert to stay ahead of upcoming catalysts. From Feirinha variability testwork to the 10,000 m Piracanjuba auger programme, the near-term newsflow warrants close attention.