South America rare earth projects have attracted more than $3 billion in committed capital since 2024, anchored by a single operating mine and a pipeline of ionic clay deposits that hold structural advantages over hard-rock alternatives. Brazil holds the world’s second-largest rare earth reserves by USGS estimates, with Chile and Argentina adding heavy rare earth clay deposits and early-stage exploration ground that is drawing Western government interest at pace.
How We Ranked the Top 10 South America Rare Earth Projects
Projects are ranked by a combination of project stage, resource scale, strategic element focus, and Western supply chain relevance. Operating mines rank first; construction-ready and advanced-feasibility projects follow; early-stage exploration anchors the lower half. Within each stage tier, projects rich in heavy rare earth elements — dysprosium, terbium, and yttrium — are ranked above light rare earth-dominant deposits, reflecting the higher strategic and commercial value of the heavy end of the spectrum. Resource tonnage is a secondary factor to stage and element mix.
Ionic clay deposits — where rare earth elements are adsorbed onto clay minerals near the surface rather than locked into hard rock — recur throughout this list. They matter because the extraction process requires no blasting or crushing: ore is dissolved using a simple leaching solution, dramatically reducing capital intensity, processing complexity, and environmental footprint compared with hard-rock operations. South America’s ionic clay geology, particularly in Brazil’s Minas Gerais and Goiás states, is exceptionally suited to this method.
1. Pela Ema — Brazil (Serra Verde / USA Rare Earth, Nasdaq: USAR)
The only operating ionic clay rare earth mine outside Asia, Pela Ema sits in the municipality of Minaçu in Goiás state, central Brazil. Serra Verde entered commercial production in 2024 following more than $1.1 billion in capital investment over 16 years, producing a Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate enriched in all four magnetic rare earths: neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium. Phase 1 nameplate capacity targets approximately 6,400 metric tonnes of total rare earth oxide per year by end-2027.
The project’s strategic importance accelerated sharply in early 2026. In February, the US International Development Finance Corporation finalised a $565 million financing package to fund operational optimisation and expansion. In April, USA Rare Earth (Nasdaq: USAR) announced a definitive agreement to acquire Serra Verde for approximately $2.8 billion — $300 million in cash plus 126.8 million USAR shares — creating what the company describes as the only fully integrated rare earth platform outside Asia. The acquisition is subject to USAR shareholder approval with closing expected in Q3 2026.
The primary near-term risk is midstream: Serra Verde’s concentrate has historically been shipped to China for separation, with those offtake agreements expiring at end-2026. New Western-aligned separation routes are under negotiation, with USAR’s ownership of Less Common Metals in Cheshire, UK, and a stake in Carester’s facility in France providing a credible pathway. Dysprosium and terbium are Pela Ema’s highest-value outputs and most strategically sensitive.
2. Caldeira — Brazil (Meteoric Resources, ASX: MEI)
The world’s largest ionic adsorption clay rare earth resource by tonnage, Caldeira sits in Minas Gerais state approximately 270 kilometres north of São Paulo. Meteoric Resources’ Pre-Feasibility Study, completed in March 2026, confirmed a 1.5 billion tonne resource at 2,413 parts per million TREO — with an ore reserve of 103 million tonnes at 4,091 ppm TREO. The PFS projects $443 million in capital expenditure, a post-tax NPV of US$1.3 billion, and a post-tax IRR of 28%.
Engineering firm Ausenco has been appointed to lead the Definitive Feasibility Study, targeting construction commencement in 2026 with first production expected in 2028. An Installation Licence application was submitted to Brazilian regulators in Q1 2026, the second of three required approval stages. Caldeira targets low operating costs through the same leaching-based ionic clay extraction that gives Serra Verde its cost advantage — and the project is sized to supply multiple downstream consumers simultaneously.
The key risk is timeline. DFS completion, permitting, financing, and construction still lie ahead. The 2028 production target is achievable but depends on Brazilian regulatory approval moving at pace and capital markets remaining open for a project of this scale.
3. Araxá — Brazil (St George Mining, ASX: SGQ)
Araxá is the largest hard-rock carbonatite rare earth deposit in South America — a fundamentally different geology from the ionic clay operations that dominate the Brazilian pipeline. Located in Minas Gerais, the deposit now hosts 70.91 million tonnes at 4.06% TREO (using a 2% TREO cut-off) following a 75% resource upgrade announced in March 2026, alongside a separately reported 24.56 million tonne niobium inventory at 0.62% Nb₂O₅. St George Mining acquired 100% of the project in February 2025.
The carbonatite style mirrors that of the world’s two largest rare earth producers outside China — Lynas’ Mount Weld and MP Materials’ Mountain Pass — and the deposit’s near-surface mineralisation, commencing from the surface in a weathered saprolite profile extending to 120 metres depth, is amenable to open-pit mining. Engineering firm Worley has been appointed to lead feasibility studies, and St George signed an MoU with Spanish engineering group Técnicas Reunidas in May 2026 to test Técnicas Reunidas’ proprietary RARETECH processing technology on Araxá ore samples.
An economic study is scheduled for Q2/Q3 2026, which will be the defining near-term catalyst. The dual niobium-rare earth resource provides optionality: a standalone niobium operation could be developed independently, providing an earlier cash-flow base to support the rare earth build-out. The project’s location adjacent to CBMM’s world-leading niobium operation in the same carbonatite complex provides significant infrastructure precedent.
4. Carina Module — Brazil (Aclara Resources, TSX: ARA)
Aclara Resources’ Carina Module in Nova Roma, Goiás — the same state as Serra Verde — holds 165.4 million tonnes of probable reserves at full production capacity of 4,378 tonnes of TREO per year, including an estimated 191 tonnes annually of combined dysprosium and terbium. Aclara’s “Circular Mineral Harvesting” technology extracts REEs from ionic clay without blasting or crushing, using 100% recycled water in a closed-loop system that generates no wet tailings.
An environmental impact assessment was submitted to Brazilian regulators in May 2025. Aclara, majority-owned by Hochschild Mining (55.9%) and with a 10.1% stake held by Chilean steelmaker CAP, is targeting a Final Investment Decision post-permit approval and production commencement by 2028. A US rare earth separation plant is under construction in Louisiana to process Carina’s concentrate, pairing Brazilian mining with American midstream processing in a vertically integrated model.
The Carina Module is the most directly comparable project to Serra Verde in Brazil: same state, same deposit type, similar production scale. Its permitting timeline is the critical variable — any delay in the EIA process pushes the 2028 production target.
5. Penco Module — Chile (Aclara Resources, TSX: ARA)
The Penco Module in the Biobío Region of south-central Chile is the most advanced rare earth project in the country and one of the few heavy REE-focused ionic clay deposits in the Western Hemisphere outside Brazil. Aclara submitted the final addendum to Chile’s Environmental Impact Assessment in April 2026, entering the last phase of the country’s permitting process. If approved, production is targeted for 2028 at an average of approximately 811 tonnes of TREO per year, with a heavy REE element mix concentrated in dysprosium and terbium.
The deposit has attracted political support: Chile’s government included the Penco Module among 25 large-scale projects in its 2024 Industrial Strengthening Plan for the Biobío region. The Chilean government is also a 10.1% shareholder in Aclara through state-linked steel company CAP. However, the project faces active community opposition in the Penco-Lirquén area, including concerns raised during January 2026 wildfires that affected the project zone.
Penco’s production scale is smaller than the Brazilian projects above it, but its element mix — heavy REE-rich in a jurisdiction with a CAP JV for alloy-making — positions it as a strategically relevant building block in Aclara’s mine-to-magnet value chain.
6. CRITR / Viridion Hub — Brazil (Ionic Rare Earths, ASX: IXR; Viridis Mining, ASX: VMM)
The Centre for Rare Earths Innovation, Technology and Recycling (CRITR), under development in Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais, is a different type of project from those above it in this list: not a mine, but South America’s first pilot-scale rare earth refining and magnet recycling facility. The project is operated by Viridion Rare Earth Technologies — a 50/50 joint venture between Ionic Rare Earths (ASX: IXR) and Viridis Mining and Minerals (ASX: VMM).
Land was formally granted by the Municipality of Poços de Caldas in July 2025, following unanimous City Council approval. CRITR will refine Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate from Viridis Mining’s Colossus Project and process end-of-life rare earth magnets from Brazil’s growing e-waste stream — producing high-purity separated oxides of neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium. Operations are targeted for the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and funding. Brazil’s “New Industry Brazil” government policy supports the facility as part of the country’s domestic processing push.
CRITR’s strategic importance lies not in scale but in precedent: it would be the first facility in South America capable of producing separated rare earth oxides from both primary and recycled sources, closing a gap that currently forces Brazilian concentrates offshore for processing.
7. Colossus — Brazil (Viridis Mining and Minerals, ASX: VMM)
Viridis Mining’s Colossus deposit in Minas Gerais is the upstream feedstock source for the CRITR hub described above. The project hosts ionic clay mineralisation and is positioned within Brazil’s most active rare earth development cluster. Colossus provides the primary concentrate supply for CRITR’s planned refining operations, linking the two projects in an integrated upstream-midstream model. As of May 2026, the project remains at advanced exploration and resource definition stage, with development timeline contingent on CRITR achieving operational status.
The integrated model — Colossus supplying CRITR with primary material, supplemented by recycled magnet feedstock — is designed to demonstrate commercial viability for Brazilian rare earth refining at a smaller scale before scaling up. This positions Viridis and Ionic Rare Earths as potential processing infrastructure providers for other Brazilian projects rather than solely a mining play.
8. Round Top — USA / Texas (USA Rare Earth, Nasdaq: USAR)
Round Top is listed here as a project within the USA Rare Earth portfolio that, following the Serra Verde acquisition, forms part of a combined South America-North America strategy. Located in Hudspeth County, Texas, Round Top is a heavy rare earth-enriched rhyolite deposit with a 20-element resource that includes significant dysprosium, terbium, yttrium, and uranium credits. USAR regards it as the next large-scale upstream asset after Serra Verde’s Pela Ema, with development benefiting from a US$1.6 billion US government funding commitment announced in January 2026.
Round Top’s position in this list reflects its role as the strategic counterpart to Pela Ema: USAR’s plan is to pair an operating Brazilian mine with a developing US mine, with processing, metallisation, and magnet manufacturing spanning the UK and Oklahoma. Round Top remains at pre-construction stage as of May 2026, with development timelines subject to permitting and capital allocation decisions post-Serra Verde closing.
9. Litica — Argentina (Litica Resources)
Argentina holds an estimated 19 identified rare earth deposits concentrated in its northern provinces, with Litica Resources leading the most advanced environmental impact study in the country. Argentina’s President Milei’s Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI), introduced in 2024, offers 30-year regulatory stability for projects above $200 million — a framework specifically designed to attract foreign capital into critical minerals. In February 2026, La Rioja province signed a tripartite exploration agreement between state company EMSE, New York-based American Minerals, and federal geological survey SEGEMAR, signalling growing government engagement with rare earth prospecting.
Argentina’s critical minerals strengths remain lithium and copper, where its position is globally significant. Rare earths are at an earlier stage: no project has reached permitting completion. The country’s attendance at the February 2026 US Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington reflects its ambition to position northern province deposits within Western supply chain frameworks, but the gap between current status and commercial production is measured in years, not months.
10. Brazilian Pipeline — Multiple Early-Stage Deposits
Beyond the named projects above, Brazil’s development pipeline extends across multiple ionic clay systems in Goiás and Minas Gerais that have not yet reached resource estimation or public company ownership. Several are held by Brazilian state entities or in joint development arrangements with federal agencies under Brazil’s domestic critical minerals strategy. Brazil’s government has explicitly targeted downstream rare earth processing as a national industrial policy objective — the Lula administration’s “New Industry Brazil” programme prioritises domestic separation and magnet manufacturing capacity alongside upstream mining.
These pipeline assets are ranked last because none has reached a stage where production timelines or resource estimates are publicly verified. Their inclusion reflects the breadth of Brazil’s rare earth geology — and the probability that additional Tier 1 projects will emerge from this cluster as exploration advances.
South America Rare Earth Projects — Comparison Table
| Project | Country | Developer | Deposit Type | Key Element Focus | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pela Ema (Serra Verde) | Brazil | USA Rare Earth (acq. pending) | Ionic clay | Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb, Y | Operating |
| Caldeira | Brazil | Meteoric Resources (ASX: MEI) | Ionic clay | NdPr, MREO mix | Advanced feasibility (DFS) |
| Araxá | Brazil | St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) | Hard-rock carbonatite | TREO, Nb | Resource definition / feasibility |
| Carina Module | Brazil | Aclara Resources (TSX: ARA) | Ionic clay | HREE (Dy, Tb) | Permitting (EIA submitted) |
| Penco Module | Chile | Aclara Resources (TSX: ARA) | Ionic clay | HREE (Dy, Tb) | Final permitting (EIA addendum) |
| CRITR / Viridion | Brazil | Ionic Rare Earths / Viridis Mining | Refining hub + recycling | Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb (separated) | Construction planned H2 2026 |
| Colossus | Brazil | Viridis Mining (ASX: VMM) | Ionic clay | REE feedstock | Advanced exploration |
| Round Top | USA (Texas) | USA Rare Earth (Nasdaq: USAR) | Rhyolite-hosted | HREE, Y, U credits | Pre-construction |
| Litica | Argentina | Litica Resources | Ionic clay (est.) | Mixed REE | EIS / pre-permitting |
| Brazil pipeline | Brazil | Multiple | Ionic clay | Mixed REE | Early exploration |
South America Rare Earth Project Outlook
Brazil dominates this list for three reasons: reserve scale, ionic clay geology, and an accelerating domestic processing policy. Western supply chain capital — led by the US DFC’s $565 million Serra Verde financing and USAR’s $2.8 billion acquisition — has validated Brazil as a tier-one rare earth jurisdiction for the first time. The ionic clay advantage is material: lower capital intensity, simpler metallurgy, and shorter ramp-up timelines relative to hard-rock peers make Brazilian deposits attractive to Western governments seeking near-term production alternatives to China.
The critical bottleneck is midstream. Mining concentrate is of limited strategic value without separation capacity. Serra Verde’s existing Chinese offtake agreements expire at end-2026; new Western-aligned routes through US, European, and Australian processors are forming but are not yet at scale. Projects further down the development curve — Caldeira, Araxá, Carina — will face the same constraint. Brazil’s “New Industry Brazil” policy explicitly targets domestic separation, and facilities like CRITR in Poços de Caldas represent the first attempts to build that capacity in-country. Whether domestic Brazilian processing can absorb production at commercial scale within the next five years is the defining question for the continent’s rare earth ambitions. For the global rare earth mining pipeline, South America is now a primary growth vector — the question is how quickly the midstream catches up.
What are the most advanced rare earth projects in South America?
Serra Verde’s Pela Ema mine in Goiás, Brazil is the only operating ionic clay rare earth mine outside Asia, producing all four magnetic rare earth elements — neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium — at commercial scale with a Phase 1 capacity target of approximately 6,400 metric tonnes of TREO per year by end-2027. Meteoric Resources’ Caldeira project (1.5 billion tonne resource, PFS completed March 2026) and Aclara Resources’ Carina Module in Brazil are the next most advanced, both targeting production by 2028.
Why does South America matter for rare earth supply chains?
Brazil holds the world’s second-largest rare earth reserves and hosts the only operating ionic clay rare earth mine outside Asia. The region’s ionic clay geology enables lower-cost extraction compared with hard-rock alternatives, and the heavy rare earth element mix — particularly dysprosium and terbium — addresses the most strategically sensitive supply gaps in Western defence and clean energy supply chains. The US government has committed more than $565 million to Serra Verde’s expansion and is pursuing the region as a primary alternative to Chinese supply.
What is ionic clay rare earth mining and why does it matter in South America?
In ionic clay deposits, rare earth elements are adsorbed onto the surface of clay minerals rather than bonded into hard rock crystal structures. Extraction requires no blasting or crushing — ore is dissolved using a low-energy leaching solution, producing a concentrate at significantly lower capital cost and environmental impact than conventional hard-rock mining. South America, particularly Brazil’s Minas Gerais and Goiás states, hosts some of the world’s largest ionic clay rare earth systems, and the deposit type tends to be enriched in heavy rare earth elements — dysprosium, terbium, and yttrium — which are the most strategically valuable and supply-constrained.
Which South American countries have the largest rare earth reserves?
Brazil ranks second globally in rare earth reserves by USGS estimates and hosts the region’s only operating rare earth mine. Chile holds significant heavy rare earth ionic clay deposits in its Biobío region, most advanced at the Penco Module held by Aclara Resources. Argentina has identified approximately 19 rare earth deposits in its northern provinces, with Litica Resources leading the most advanced environmental study, though no Argentine project has reached permitting stage.
Is the US government investing in South America rare earth projects?
Yes. The US International Development Finance Corporation finalised a $565 million financing package for Serra Verde’s Pela Ema mine in Brazil in February 2026, including an option for the US government to acquire a minority equity stake — the largest direct US government investment in a foreign rare earth operation to date. USA Rare Earth subsequently announced a $2.8 billion acquisition of Serra Verde in April 2026, building on an earlier $1.6 billion US government funding commitment to USAR’s domestic supply chain. The DFC is also pursuing further Latin American critical mineral investments under a broader Washington strategy to reduce dependence on Chinese rare earth supply.
