The playbook — rare earths · September 11, 2026
Atlantico finds gallium and rare earths in all 114 surface samples
Every grab sample at Novo Cruzeiro carried the target metals — but this is weathered dirt, not drilling, and the numbers are modest.
On September 11, 2026, Atlantico Energy Metals said all 114 of its follow-up surface samples at the Novo Cruzeiro project in Brazil’s Lithium Valley came back with gallium and rare earths. That is a clean sweep — 114 out of 114. But read the fine print: these are grab and soil samples collected on a 50-by-25-metre grid, not drill core. There are no widths, no intervals, no tonnes. The lab work itself dates to March 2026, roughly six months before the company disclosed it, with no explanation given beyond a promise to share more ‘when available.’
The numbers are worth understanding plainly. The best rare-earth sample hit 2,806 parts per million total rare-earth oxide — that is 0.28%, meaning a tonne of that rock holds a little over two-and-a-half kilograms of rare earths. The median sample came in at just 315 ppm. Peak gallium oxide landed near 97 grams per tonne, and even that figure is calculated from measured gallium (multiplied by 1.3442), not directly measured — the company says it ‘does not imply recoverable oxide.’ Atlantico itself calls these ‘exploration indicators only,’ drawn from strongly weathered saprolite that ‘should not be interpreted as representative fresh-bedrock grades.’ Surface weathering can concentrate metals near the top and thin out below. Atlantico listed on the CSE in June 2026 through a reverse takeover of a micro-cap shell. The stock fell 21.4% over three months while the rare-earths index REMX fell 23.1% — a gap of about 170 basis points, essentially tracking the sector rather than breaking from it, with a violent mid-period drop to about C$0.07 before recovering.
A few things belong in plain sight. One certificate, GQ2601203, is on a QA/QC hold: a reference standard (OREAS460) returned lithium below detection against a certified value near 19.6 ppm, with negative bias flagged on several rare-earth elements — those results carry a ‘interpret with caution’ note. The Qualified Person, Andrew Lee Smith, sits on the company’s Advisory Board and the release discloses he is explicitly not independent under NI 43-101; he shares a surname with CEO Bonn Smith, but no personal or family relationship between the two is disclosed in the release. A paid digital-marketing campaign with Machai Capital resumed the same day as this news. Watch for the promised update on post-March 2026 work, completion of the Phase 1 program, and a maiden drill program on priority targets — none of which carry stated dates. No resource has been defined.