Resouro Strategic Metals Inc. (ASX: RAU) has reached a significant milestone in the development of its flagship Tiros Rare Earths and Titanium Project, completing a Preliminary Economic Assessment for a starter operation at the project located in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The assessment was prepared by a team led by Norda Stelo in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
The PEA outlines a starter operation designed to target a concentrated high-grade zone that represents less than 1 per cent of the company’s previously announced four-billion-tonne Measured and Indicated Resource.
The proposed operation would process 500,000 tonnes per annum over an initial mine life of 20 years, for a total run-of-mine feed of five million tonnes grading 26.3 per cent titanium dioxide, 10,832 parts per million total rare earth oxides, and a 2.7 strip ratio.
The economics outlined in the assessment are compelling.
The PEA indicates an after-tax net present value of US$714.9 million at an 8 per cent nominal discount rate and an after-tax internal rate of return of 22 per cent.
The dual-revenue model, drawing from both titanium dioxide and rare earth product streams, underpins the financial case for the project.
From an operational standpoint, the Tiros Project benefits from simple open-pit mining with free-digging near-surface mineralisation.
The proposed processing flowsheet is multistage, incorporating grinding and sizing, beneficiation, calcination, magnetic and electrostatic separation, gravity separation, acid leach, sulphation and water leach, hydrolysation, precipitation, and solid-liquid separation.
Overall recovery of titanium dioxide is projected at 7 per cent, split across coarse and fine titanium dioxide products, while recovery of rare earth elements to a mixed rare earth carbonate product is estimated at 67 per cent.
The staged approach to development is central to the company’s strategy.
Beginning with a smaller, high-grade operation is intended to reduce social and environmental impacts, shorten the timeline to production, and substantially de-risk the broader project.
The company views this approach as a foundation for future financing and a pathway toward larger-scale development, given the significant expansion potential supported by the scale of the underlying titanium and rare earth mineral resource.
Environmental considerations are embedded in the project design.
The proposed operation assumes dry-stack tailings management, reflecting a commitment to minimising the project’s environmental footprint.
The Minas Gerais location also provides the project with access to established regional infrastructure, a positive factor for permitting and logistics.
The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable categorisation as Mineral Reserves.
There is no certainty that the PEA will be realised, and it does not constitute a feasibility study. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
Resouro will host an investor webinar on June 16, 2026, to present the PEA results, provide an overview of the Tiros Project, and outline the company’s proposed next steps.
All financial figures are expressed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.
