The rare earths element deposit at Morro do Ferro was formed under supergene lateritic weathering conditions. The ore body consists of shallow NW-SE elongated argillaceous lenses that extend from the top of the hill downwards along its south-eastern slope. The deposit is capped by a network of magnetite layers which protected the underlying highly weathered, argillaceous host rock from excessive erosion. The surrounding country rocks comprise a sequence of subvolcanic phonolite intrusions that have been strongly altered by hydrothermal and supergene processes.
Bastnaesita (REE Fluorocarbonate) is the main REE mineral, followed by Cerianite and Monazite in minor proportions.
Bastnaesite
Cerianite
Monazite
Morro do Ferro has 3.55 million tons of indicated resources with an average grade of 3.9% of total rare earths oxides (TREO)
There is 138.500 tons of TREO available to be mined from the deposit.
Neodymium (13.7%), Praseodymium (5%), Dysprosium (0.5%), Terbium (0.1%) and Europium (0.4%) represent 86,5% of the value of the REO basket price.
* Prices from Shanghai Metals Market on 09-oct-17
Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. (RPA Canada) prepared an estimate resource on the Morro do Ferro Rare Earths Elements project. The RPA independent Technical Report conforms to NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
MTR is a public limited company in Brazil which owns 100% of the Morro do Ferro Project.
The Hydrometallurgical testing was performed in the SGS Lakefield plant in Canada on a master composite of the whole ore. A conceptual hydrometallurgical flowsheet was proposed.
