Featured Company / Spark Energy Minerals Inc.

In mineral exploration, discoveries are the exception. Years of mapping, sampling and drilling can pass without one. For a junior explorer, a discovery can be absolutely transformative, and mark a defining inflection point for investors. A second discovery on the same property? Now that’s a story worth digging into.

That is exactly what has happened at Spark Energy Minerals’ (CSE: SPRK) (OTC: SPARF) (FSE: 8PC) expansive flagship property in Brazil’s prolific Lithium Valley, which spans over 910 square kilometres (350+ square miles).

The first discovery was made at Cruzeta, after the 5-hole maiden drill program where each hole hit gallium from surface with rare earths beneath. Yes, you read that correctly: Spark’s first five holes delivered both gallium and rare earths in every one. That’s a 100% hit rate.

Expanding the First Discovery with Conviction

Spark followed with another 23 holes at Cruzeta. Once again, every hole encountered the same broad pattern of near-surface gallium followed by rare earth mineralization below. Twenty-eight Cruzeta holes; 28 hits. The 100% record remained intact.

Spark then moved approximately 7–8 kilometres (~5 miles) south to the previously undrilled Boa Vista target. Five for five again: every maiden hole returned gallium from surface followed by rare earth mineralization below.

Thirty-three reported holes. Gallium and Rare Earth Mineralization in Every One

This remarkable record now spans two separate discovery centres roughly 7-8 kms (five miles) apart on the same Arapaima property, though no continuity between Cruzeta and Boa Vista has been established. At Boa Vista, the limited maiden drill pattern is open in all directions laterally.

And the story may not stop at 33: Spark has completed 42 RC holes across Arapaima, with results from nine holes still pending. What began as a single-target story at Cruzeta is developing into a multi-target exploration model.

Drill Results Worthy of Attention

Spark’s strongest individual gallium assay to date came from ARA-RC-007: 114.3 g/t Ga₂O₃ over 2 metres from surface. Although potentially important for follow-up, no economic assessment or metallurgical recovery has yet been established.

And that gallium assay was not an isolated flash. ARA-RC-030 returned 32 metres from surface at 70.6 g/t Ga₂O₃. Beneath the near-surface gallium, ARA-RC-031 returned 28 metres at 1,557 ppm total rare earth oxides (“TREO”), including 2 metres at 3,459 ppm TREO.

At Cruzeta, ARA-RC-011 returned an individual 2-metre assay of 12,039 ppm TREO, or more than 1.20% TREO, within a broader 14-metre interval grading 3,125 ppm TREO.

Rare Earths. Gallium... And Scandium

At Cruzeta, seven holes returned qualifying scandium intervals from surface. The strongest scandium interval was 30 metres from surface at 21.5 g/t Sc₂O₃ in ARA-RC-021, including 2 metres at 26.1 g/t Sc₂O₃ in a sample that also assayed 75.3 g/t Ga₂O₃. The scandium is associated with the same iron- and titanium-oxide fraction of the weathering profile that carries the gallium.

Of course, this is still early-stage, and these drill results do not establish a mineral resource, economic viability or metallurgical recovery. Those are later-stage questions. What these results do establish is that Spark’s exploration model has generated a second drill discovery within its expansive and still largely underexplored land package in Brazil’s Lithium Valley.

Why Gallium Has Become Strategically Impossible to Ignore

Timing matters.

Gallium is not mined from conventional primary gallium mines. It is generally recovered as a by-product of processing bauxite and, to a lesser extent, zinc ores. That makes new supply difficult to switch on quickly.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that China accounted for approximately 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production in 2025. Gallium is used in compound semiconductors supporting telecommunications, electric-vehicle charging, LED lighting, solar cells, aerospace systems and defence electronics.

Rare earth supply chains are similarly concentrated. The International Energy Agency has warned that China is the leading refiner for 19 of the 20 strategic minerals it tracks, with an average market share of roughly 70%, while rare earths remain central to high-performance permanent magnets used in electric motors, wind turbines, advanced electronics, aerospace and defence applications.

Governments are not treating that concentration as an abstract risk. Export controls, strategic financing and public investment are pushing critical-mineral security higher on policy agendas around the world.

Spark remains at the exploration stage, but two separate discoveries in Brazil give investors early exposure to a geological story involving minerals that major economies are actively trying to source from more diversified supply chains.

More Than 910 Square Kilometres (350 Square Miles). How Much Has Arapaima Revealed?

Arapaima covers approximately 91,900 hectares. That scale does not prove mineralization across the property, but it creates room for Spark’s geological model to be tested well beyond the areas drilled to date.

Boa Vista shows why that matters.

The target began as a combination of geochemical, geological and terrain signals. Five holes were enough to turn that untested anomaly into Spark’s second separate mineralized centre. Results from nine additional Arapaima holes remain pending and are expected to be reported separately.

Could additional drilling expand Boa Vista or produce a third mineralized centre elsewhere at Arapaima? How much mineralization could the overall project contain?

Those questions cannot yet be answered. They are also exactly the questions that make the next phase of exploration important.

The Development Ladder Investors Watch

The critical-minerals market offers examples of what successful technical de-risking can look like over time.

Defense Metals Corp. (TSX-Venture: DEFN) (OTCQB: DFMTF) shows what the first major de-risking step looks like once resource definition advances. Its Wicheeda project near Prince George, British Columbia carries a mineral resource estimate prepared under CIM definition standards as part of a 2025 pre-feasibility study, and the company put crews back in the field on May 1 for a spring core program aimed squarely at infill. Management describes the campaign as designed to enhance and expand the current resource and reserve estimates, with the potential to extend mine life.

The Financing Rung

NioCorp Developments Ltd. (Nasdaq: NB) reached the next one this month. Its 2026 feasibility study for the Elk Creek project in southeast Nebraska describes a 40-year underground operation yielding eight critical mineral products from a single ore body, with an after-tax NPV8 of $3.4 billion and an after-tax internal rate of return of 22.8%. The technical report behind it was prepared under NI 43-101. The reserve now runs 45.9 million tons and carries rare earth elements for the first time. NioCorp says completing the study satisfies a key due diligence requirement from the Export-Import Bank of the United States, whose April 2024 project letter had indicated debt of up to roughly $800 million.

When Discovery Becomes Economics

Brazilian Rare Earths Limited (ASX: BRE) (OTCQX: BRELY) supplies the figure at the far end. Its August 18 scoping study for an integrated Monte Alto mine and Camaçari refinery in Bahia forecasts an after-tax NPV8 of approximately US$6.0 billion on pre-production capital of US$969 million, with a roughly 90% internal rate of return and payback near 1.1 years. The study carries an intended accuracy of approximately plus or minus 40%, and its production target is based on roughly 75% Indicated and 25% Inferred Mineral Resources. First production is targeted for 2031, which is a fair reminder that the sequence remains long even when a study produces compelling headline economics.

Lastly, keeping with the Brazil theme, USA Rare Earth, Inc. (NASDAQ: USAR) announced earlier in the week that a special purpose vehicle (SPV) established to purchase its rare earth production had secured $1.55 billion in capitalization commitments ahead of the planned acquisition of Serra Verde Group. The funding included a $750 million commitment from the Department of War, a $500 million senior secured revolving credit facility from a tier-1 institutional bank, and a U.S. government forward purchase agreement covering at least $300 million of rare earth products over five years, with take-or-pay provisions and floor pricing. USA Rare Earth announced its definitive agreement to acquire Serra Verde on April 20, 2026, with Serra Verde also entering into a 15-year agreement to supply 100% of its Phase I production to the SPV.

Spark is not at those stages. Arapaima has no mineral resource, mineral reserve or economic study, and no metallurgical recovery of gallium, scandium or rare earths has been demonstrated.

That stage difference is important. It is also why Spark’s next drilling and metallurgical milestones matter so much. Advanced projects show where the development ladder can lead when geology, metallurgy, engineering, economics and financing align. Spark is still testing the first and most fundamental question: how much mineralization could Arapaima contain?

The Next Inflection Point Is Already Defined

Spark plans step-out drilling in all lateral directions at Boa Vista, together with targeted infill drilling, to test its footprint and internal continuity.

It also plans to integrate the drill results with surface geochemistry, geology and terrain data, evaluate lower-detection-limit scandium analysis and report pending results from the additional Arapaima holes separately. At Cruzeta, metallurgical test work is underway at ANSTO in Australia, and further drilling is being planned to support a potential future maiden resource estimate.

The roadmap is clear: expand the footprint, test continuity and determine metallurgical recovery.

Every successful step would answer one question and raise the next.

A Second Chance to Pay Attention

Maiden drilling at Cruzeta and Boa Vista has produced two separate discoveries on one flagship property.

Cruzeta established the first gallium–rare earth centre. Boa Vista has now added a second approximately 7–8 kilometres away, led by a project-record individual gallium assay and a mineralized footprint that remains open laterally in all directions.

The ultimate size, continuity and economics remain unknown, and significant exploration and technical work lies ahead. But that uncertainty is precisely what future drilling is designed to resolve.

One discovery put Arapaima on the radar. Two have made the next drill results much harder to ignore.