Alvo Minerals Limited (ASX: ALV) (“Alvo” or the “Company”) is extremely pleased to announce the signing of a binding agreement to purchase the highly prospective Bluebush REE Project (“Bluebush” or the “Project”), located on the northern half of the Serra Dourada granite, host of the Serra Verde Ionic Clay REE deposit (“Serra Verde”).
HIGHLIGHTS
- Alvo Minerals Limited has entered into a binding agreement for the purchase of the highly prospective Bluebush Rare Earth Element (“REE”) Project in Central Brazil, adjacent to Alvo’s existing Palmeiropolis exploration base.
- Bluebush is located adjacent to and in the same geological setting as the Serra Verde Ionic Clay REE Project, the only genuine Ionic Clay project currently in construction outside of China.
- Bluebush has been held privately by Mata Azul S/A since 2004 and was primarily explored for REEs associated with concentrates of alluvials, with the saprolite (clay) potential at an early stage of exploration.
- Early-stage exploration work completed by the vendors has confirmed high-grade REEs at shallow levels with values up to 4,500ppm TREO in alluvials and 2,350ppm TREO in saprolite (clay).
- Saprolite results recorded a very high magnet rare earth split averaging 35% (MREO/TREO)
- Auger drilling focused on surface alluvial- average hole depth of 3.6m
- Early-stage exploration completed (auger, channel and pit sampling) with intercepts of saprolite (clay) mineralisation from surface and ending in REE mineralisation (*hole ends in REE mineralisation), includes significant intercepts as below. Please refer to cautionary statement below for previous exploration results.
- 6m @ 1,188ppm TREO (37% MREO) auger ERRO273AGR from 1m* (Boa Vista 01)
- 1m @ 1,355ppm TREO (29% MREO) auger ERRO031AGR from 1m* (Ferradura)
- 5m @ 1,139ppm TREO (36% MREO) auger ERRO072AGR from 1m* (Fazendinha)
- 13m @ 928ppm TREO (33% MREO) auger ERRO017AGR from 0m* (Ferradura)
- 6m @ 871ppm TREO (31% MREO) auger ERRO142AGR from 0m* (Ferradura)
- 7m @ 860ppm TREO (43% MREO) auger MAZ-TR-011 from 1m* (Fazendinha)
- 6m @ 796ppm TREO (34% MREO) auger ERRO279AGR from 0m* (Boa Vista 1)
- 5m @ 951ppm TREO (37% MREO) auger ERRO136AGR from 1m* (Ferradura)
- 4m @ 863ppm TREO (35% MREO) auger ERRO095AGR from 1m* (Praiao 02)
- Ability to purchase up to 100% of Bluebush through staged payments based on project milestones.
- 6-month (+3 months) due diligence process underway following payment of BRL100,000 (A$30,530).
- Due Diligence work will include auger drilling to extend existing mineralisation depth profile and strike extent and sampling of saprolite to confirm Ionic Clay mineralisation.
- Alvo’s exploration team and inhouse equipment including truck mounted auger rigs are in place locally
- and will proceed under guidance from international REE specialists.
*Cautionary Statement: The exploration results reported in this announcement have been reported by the previous owner. The Exploration Results have not been reported in accordance with accordance with JORC Code 2012. A Competent Person has not done sufficient work to disclose the exploration results in accordance with the JORC Code 2012. It is possible that following further evaluation and/or exploration work that the confidence in the prior exploration results may be reduced when reported under the JORC Code 2012. Nothing has come to the attention of Alvo that causes it to question the accuracy or reliability of the former owner’s exploration. The Company however has not independently validated the former owner’s exploration results and therefore is not to be regarded as reporting, adopting or endorsing those results.
Serra Verde is majority owned by US based private equity group, Denham Capital1, and boasts a Mineral Resource2 of 911Mt @ 1,200ppm Total Rare Earth Oxide (“TREO”) and a Mineral reserve of 350Mt @ 1,500ppm TREO with high heavy and critical ratios of Magnet Rare Earth Oxide (“MREO”). Of significance is that Serra Verde is the only Ionic Clay project in construction outside of China, and the adjacent Bluebush Project exhibits many similar characteristics in terms of grades and REE ratios.
Bluebush is located within 10km of Alvo’s exploration base where Alvo has the team, the tools and expertise to conduct a timely and cost-effective exploration program to rapidly advance the Bluebush Project.
Rob Smakman, Alvo’s Managing Director commented on the Bluebush Project:
“Brazil is emerging as a premier location for Rare Earth Elements and Alvo is incredibly excited by the acquisition of Bluebush, which is a potential ‘Tier 1’ Ionic-Clay rare earth project. Alvo is now entering the race to develop these critical minerals which are vital in the global energy transition.
“The Project itself is located adjacent to the Serra Verde mine, the largest and most advanced ionic-clay REE project outside of China, and many of the attributes at Bluebush appear similar. Bluebush hosts high grades at surface, broad zones of saprolite which have barely been tested, and the mix of Magnet or Critical REEs to Total REEs appears very similar to those at Serra Verde.
“The opportunity at Bluebush only became available to Alvo through our local presence, with the vendors only interested in dealing with a team with proven exploration execution capabilities as we have demonstrated at Palma. Being privately held and focused on cashflow, the vendors have concentrated on the alluvial potential of the Project and only scratched the surface for ionic clay hosted REEs. We plan to rapidly test the ionic clay mineralisation potential at Bluebush, which is such a similar exploration setting to that of Serra Verde.
“The Bluebush acquisition makes perfect sense for Alvo and is synergistic with existing exploration at Palma. Our exploration base and Brazilian head office are located a few kilometres from Bluebush, and we have existing relationships with the owners and local stakeholders. Couple that with the existing exploration team, the best tools for the exploration in country and consultants that can help us effectively explore, and we have what I believe is a winning formula for success.
“We are ready to immediately start our due-diligence on the Project, where we will test for the depth extents of the saprolite with our inhouse auger drill-rig and then run a series of tests on the mineralisation to confirm their ionic clay characteristics. We will be guided in our due diligence by international REE specialists Met-Chem Consulting.”
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