Critical Minerals Expansion
Rare Earth Mining Projects Advance Across Brazil and the Caribbean to Diversify Supply
Anonymous
Rare earths are increasingly important to clean-energy and defense technologies, but concentrated supply chains and Europe’s lack of operating mines have intensified calls for diversified sourcing and local processing. In Brazil, Japan’s JOGMEC agreed to fund early exploration with Aclara Resources and may earn a 30% stake in a selected project, while Aclara’s flagship Carina project remains wholly owned by the company. Separately, Rare Earths Americas reported shallow, heavy-rare-earth-rich mineralization at its Homer property in Goiás, with drilling still covering only a small portion of the identified anomalies. The Dominican Republic is pursuing a resource estimate for the Ávila reserve by November 2026 and a possible first reserve declaration in the first half of 2027, but commercial viability still depends on further technical and economic work. In Western Australia, the Yangibana project is planned as a staged, 19-year development, beginning with open-pit mining and beneficiation before potential downstream refining.
Key Points
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Neo Performance Materials executive Vasilios Tanos said rare-earth magnets can improve electric-motor efficiency and reduce electric-vehicle battery costs by up to 30%; he also pointed to Neo’s midstream rare-earth processing facility in Estonia as an example of European processing capacity.
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If JOGMEC earns a 30% stake in a selected Aclara exploration project, it would also have the right to buy output equivalent to that stake plus an additional 10%, on normal commercial market terms.
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At Homer, Rare Earths Americas also identified niobium- and tantalum-enriched areas associated with particular magmatic phases, in addition to the rare-earth mineralization.
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The U.S.–Dominican critical-minerals framework could support projects through financing and commercial mechanisms—including loans, guarantees, equity, offtake agreements and insurance—and extends to separation and processing, not just extraction.
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Yangibana is being developed by a joint venture in which Wyloo Gascoyne owns 60% and Hastings Technology Metals owns 40%; the estimated initial investment is about A$333.4 million.
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