Oceana has already outlined rare earths over 4.5sq km at its Serra Negra project in Brazil, highlighting what is now clearly a district-scale opportunity.

The results show Serra Negra has the potential to be bigger than Lynas’ much-vaunted Mt Weld project in WA.

Lynas has a market capitalisation of $14 billion compared with less than $100 million for Oceana. And while one is a well-established rare earths producer and the other an explorer, the whopping differential highlights the potential opportunity for investors.

Oceana is fast becoming the hot new rare earths story on the ASX, which raises the question: how did a West Perth junior come to get its hands on a potentially world-class rare earths project in Brazil?

Part of the answer lies in Oceana’s membership of the so-called Richardson Street Group, which is the name given to those companies that sit under the umbrella of highly successful mining entrepreneurs Steve Parsons and Mike Naylor.

Other members of this stable include the $1.5 billion copper explorer FireFly Metals, Andean Silver and the rapidly growing WA iron ore explorer Killi Resources.

As this list shows, the group specialises in creating significant value for investors by identifying and exploring quality brownfield projects. It capitalises on its global network and access to top-shelf deal flow to acquire projects and then applies its well-established skills in exploration and capital raising to unlock their value. 

In the case of Serra Negra, it was a combination of impeccable contacts and good timing which led to the acquisition. Oceana’s Brazilian-born chief geologist, Natalia Brunacci, became aware of the huge rare earths potential at Serra Negra via her home country’s mining network.

Serra Negra had been explored for phosphate and titanium many years ago. But Oceana saw the rare earths potential and acquired the project earlier this year for just US$7.9 million up front.

It immediately set about re-assaying the historical drill core for rare earths, with the results quickly showing that the team’s instincts were spot on.

The assays have outlined rare earths mineralisation over 4.5sq km within the carbonatite complex, revealing the presence of thick intervals of mineralisation.

The district-scale expansion results include:

32m @ 2.7% TREO within 122m @ 1.2% TREO from 50m (Peak Assays – 4.79% TREO, 1.19% MREO)

106m @ 1.00% TREO from 18.9m (Peak Assays – 4.34% TREO, 1.01% MREO)

26m @ 1.4% TREO + 0.63% Nb2O5 from 127m to EOH (Peak Assays – 10.59% TREO, 2.22% MREO and 6.39% Nb2O5)

All 68 available historical drillholes have now been re-sampled, with assays still pending from 45 of them.

Oceana has noted that none of the historical holes targeted rare earths. This means that every rare earths assay from this core demonstrates the strong presence of the mineralisation across the carbonatite complex.

In parallel with the historical assaying process, Oceana has now started its own drilling programme, with two rigs onsite testing the 1.5km x 1.5km priority central area, where assays of up to 50m @ 4% TREO have been recorded. More rigs will join the programme in coming weeks.

Ocean managing director Mick Wilson says the initial evidence supports the company’s view that Serra Negra could be a world-class carbonatite-hosted rare earths project.

“The results show we have immense scale, the grades and the all-important magnet and heavy rare earths which are in huge demand due to their critical role in magnets and other components used in electric motors, including EVs,” Wilson says.

“We will have very strong newsflow over coming months, with remaining assays pending from the re-sampling programme and assays from our own resource drilling.

“We are also conducting project-scale geophysics to assist in prioritising the new areas for drilling. “There is clearly potential for a world-class rare earths project at Serra Negra and with our drilling now underway, we believe we could be on the cusp of establishing this project as a game-changer for the global rare earths market.”