Chilean Cobalt Corp. has expanded its development work at the NeoRe rare earth project in Chile, completing more than 2,500 meters of drilling across approximately 200 drillholes alongside ongoing pilot plant operations.

The company acquired the NeoRe rare earth project in southern Chile under a binding earn-in and option agreement signed on January 14, 2026, to earn up to 100% ownership. Glencore plc and Madesal SpA hold strategic equity stakes in Chilean Cobalt following a private placement completed in May 2026.

Pilot plant operations have advanced through Batch 7, processing roughly 350 kilograms of cumulative clay across seven batches. Chilean Cobalt has completed Phase 2 of its Design of Experiments and finalized upgrades to its solvent extraction pilot plant. Batches 4 through 7 delivered improvements in sulphur removal, hydrometallurgical processing, operational autonomy, and concentrate quality. Several batches of rare earth carbonate concentrate have been shipped to prospective partners for evaluation.

Engineering and permitting work continue in parallel. NeoRe has initiated the Industrial Technical Classification permitting process, prepared the Environmental Layout, and is advancing the technical and economic evaluation of the main processing equipment under the first Modular Extraction Plant, known as MEP-1. NeoRe is also conducting supplier selection and incorporating spare parts and maintenance requirements.

In the United States, Chilean Cobalt completed its first exploration campaign, collecting over 145 samples across seven target zones during eight field days. Preliminary portable XRF data identified multiple areas of elevated yttrium concentrated in the upper saprolite to lower pedolith interval, aligning with the company's working model for an ionic clay system. Laboratory results from Inductively Coupled Plasma analysis are currently pending.

“The United States exploration program provides a complementary opportunity alongside the flagship NeoRe project in Chile, while processing and strategic partnership work are focused on building an integrated pathway from resource through separated rare earth products,” said Duncan T. Blount, Chairman and CEO of Chilean Cobalt. “Combining an emerging resource and processing platform in Chile together with ionic clay rare earth exploration opportunities in the United States could support the development of a strategically important Chile-U.S. rare earth supply chain, with planned 2027 production of critical heavy rare earth elements such as yttrium, dysprosium, and terbium, together with the light magnetic rare earth elements neodymium and praseodymium.”

— Duncan T. Blount, Chairman and CEO

NeoRe anticipates first production from MEP-1 during the first half of 2027.

Read the full announcement: Chilean Cobalt Corp. Advances Accelerated NeoRe Development and Strategic Processing Partnerships as U.S. Rare Earth Exploration Identifies New Prospective Zones