General discussion (MEI), page-3929

METEORIC RESOURCES (ASX:MEI)

MARKET CAP: $506m
% Change: 336%

As late as November 2022 you could have found a unit of Meteoric Resources stock sitting at the bottom of your record shop bargain bin for just 1c.

No chance now, after the Tolga Kumova-backed Brazilian explorer uncovered one of the world’s highest grade ionic clay rare earths deposits in historic drilling at a family owned mine in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state.

That family business had largely been mining clay in the area for 112 years to sell building bricks and roof tiles, then delivering refractory products for furnaces and kilns in industries like steel, aluminium, industrial minerals, glass and ceramics production.

Now Meteoric thinks the same clays could be used to add to the western world’s arsenal in a bid to supply rare earths used in EV motors and wind turbines.

MEI began to rerate as soon as it acquired Caldeira and reported its amenability to ionic adsorption processing in December last year.

But it has rerated again since the release of a maiden resource in May declared as the world’s highest grade ionic adsorption clay REE deposit, containing 409Mt at 2626ppm TREO at a 1000ppm cut off.

Around 24% of that basket are magnet rare earths, with drilling only completed down to 6.9m at the time and every hole finishing not just in mineralisation, but at mineralisation above 1000ppm.

Drilling since has found high grade pockets beneath historic drilling, extending as far in some places a 56m.

Ausenco was awarded a contract in October to deliver a scoping study on the Caldeira project, expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year.

READ: Barry FitzGerald: Here’s why Meteoric’s REE moonshot is only just firing up

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