Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd (LSE:RBW, OTC:RBWRF) said assays from samples at the Uberaba phosphogypsum stack in Brazil indicate a higher rare earth content than its project under development at Phalaborwa in South Africa.
Initial analysis of the samples points to an average grade of 0.58% total rare earth oxides (TREO) compared to 0.44% TREO at Phalaborwa.
Like Phalaborwa, Uberaba samples also contained four of the most economically important rare earths with neodymium and praseodymium representing around 25% of the basket.
George Bennett, Rainbow’s chief executive, added: "These positive initial assay results confirm that Uberaba represents a major opportunity for Rainbow to develop an economic project along the lines of Phalaborwa, due to the similar nature of both gypsum resources.
"The Uberaba phosphogypsum stack is expected to be considerably larger in size than Phalaborwa and it is exciting that initial results indicate it could have a higher rare earth basket price, due to the higher NdPr content.
“We expect that a significant portion of the process flowsheet and intellectual property developed for Phalaborwa can be applied to rare earth extraction at Uberaba."
Rainbow announced a memorandum of understanding with The Mosaic Company at Uberaba in July.