State environmental licensing exemption and water-use registration secured
Axel REE Limited (ASX: AXL, FSE: HN8, Axel or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has secured two regulatory clearances for its planned inaugural in situ recovery (ISR) field programme at the Woolrich rare earth elements (REE) deposit, part of the Company’s 100%-owned Caladão Rare Earth Elements and Gallium Project in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Highlights
- Axel’s Woolrich ISR field programme – the first known of its kind in Minas Gerais –is exempt from State environmental licensing, clearing the way to proceed
- Three-year water-use registration secured from IGAM for the field programme
- Moves Axel’s ISR testing from the laboratory to the field, a key step towardspotential low-impact rare earths production
- The programme will trial magnesium sulphate ISR – the proven leaching approachused for ionic clay rare earth production in China and southeast Asia
- Woolrich hosts a 264.6Mt Mineral Resource at 1,101ppm TREO, including a 110.1MtIndicated Resource – just one of four deposits within Caladão’s 708.6Mt globalresource in Brazil’s Lithium Valley
The Jequitinhonha Regional Environmental Regularisation Unit of the Minas Gerais State Department of Environment and Sustainable Development (SEMAD) has issued a Certificate of Exemption from Environmental Licensing. This confirms that the proposed REE leaching research at Caladão is not subject to State environmental licensing under COPAM Normative Deliberation No. 217/2017.
The Instituto Mineiro de Gestão das Águas (IGAM) has also issued a Certificate of Registration for Insignificant Water Use for the Woolrich field programme, for a period of three years.
Receipt of both clearances marks an important step in advancing Axel’s planned Woolrich ISR field programme.
Axel REE Managing Director, Dr Patience Mpofu, commented:
“Securing the environmental licensing exemption and water-use registration is an important milestone for Axel and for our Caladão development strategy.
“With these in hand, we can progress the planned Woolrich ISR field programme, where we will evaluate magnesium sulphate-based in situ recovery on our ionic rare earth mineralisation in the field rather than in the laboratory.
“We are advancing Caladão step by step, and the field programme results will generate important technical data to inform future ISR operations.”
Regulatory milestone for Woolrich ISR field programme
The planned Woolrich ISR programme is intended to evaluate the performance of magnesium sulphatebased ISR under controlled field conditions.
The planned programme will seek to generate site-specific technical information to support the assessment of ISR performance, including solution movement through the mineralised regolith and the recovery of REEbearing solutions.
The clearances support Axel’s progression from laboratory-scale metallurgical investigations to field-scale evaluation of ISR under representative conditions.
The exemption applies to State environmental licensing. Axel remains responsible for obtaining any other authorisations that may be required, such as approvals relating to permanent preservation areas or vegetation clearance, and for confirming any municipal requirements.
Woolrich – Caladão’s priority ISR development pathway
Woolrich is the Company’s priority deposit for the development and field validation of its proposed magnesium sulphate ISR pathway.
The deposit hosts a JORC (2012) Mineral Resource Estimate of 264.6Mt at 1,101ppm TREO, including a maiden 110.1Mt Indicated Mineral Resource at 1,073ppm TREO (ASX release 24 September 2026).
The upgraded Woolrich resource provides the geological basis for the next phase of technical work and fieldscale testing.
Woolrich is one of four defined rare earth deposits within the Caladão Project, which hosts a global Mineral Resource Estimate of 708.6Mt at 1,443ppm TREO.
The planned ISR field programme forms part of the Company’s strategy to assess the potential application of magnesium sulphate leaching to Woolrich’s ionic adsorption clay REE mineralisation.
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