St George drilling delivers exceptionally high grade REEs and niobium in Brazil

• SGQ reports up to 13.98% TREO at its Araxá project in Brazil
• The company is targeting an update to the current 40.6Mt at 4.13% resource
• Drilling ongoing and auger assays pending

Special Report: St George Mining’s first batch of assays from RC drilling at the Araxá project in Brazil has returned up to 13.98% total rare earth oxides and 7% niobium.

The project is already the largest and highest-grade carbonatite-hosted REE deposit in South America and second highest grade REE deposit in the Western world, with a current resource of 40.6Mt at 4.13% TREO.

The latest assays have returned thick intervals – up to 41m – of high-grade mineralisation from surface in the first seven reverse circulation (RC) drill holes, including:

• 41m at 4.52% TREO and 0.87% Nb2O5 from surface
• 13m at 7.06% TREO and 1.45% Nb2O5 from 4m
• 11m at 7.03% TREO and 0.91% Nb2O5 from 5m
• 16m at 5.56% TREO and 0.81% Nb2O5 from surface; and
• 5m at 11.83% TREO and 3.12% Nb2O5 from 8m.

Along with these high-grade results, the assays also highlighted high NdPr ratios of up to 2.89% NdPr with a ratio of NdPr-to-TREO of up to 42%. These are the high value light rare earths used in magnets for battery applications.

Assays also showed an increased occurrence of heavy REEs – including terbium, lutetium, gadolinium and dysprosium – in the new drilling, with the company looking to define significant new accumulations of the sought after materials.

Heavy rare earths are in extremely high demand in the West because they are critical in high temperature magnet applications like EVs and defence tech, and China controls nearly all of the world’s supply.

St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) said the results confirmed the substantial scale and continuity of the rare earths and niobium mineralisation at the Araxá project.

It also highlighted the strong potential for a major resource upgrade to the already world class carbonatite-hosted TREO and niobium resource – which is currently modelled to only 100m from surface and with less than 10% of the tenure subject to close-spaced drilling.

Watch: St George discovery could supersize Araxá REE-niobium

A major discovery?

In addition, assays from auger drilling have confirmed a significant new discovery 1km outside of the known resource which could have the potential for a significant volume of near surface, high-grade rare earths mineralisation.

“These first RC assay results are an excellent start and show that we are on track to upgrade the large carbonatite-hosted MRE at the Araxá project – the same style of deposit as the two major producing rare earths mines outside of China, Mountain Pass in California and Mt Weld in Western Australia,” SGQ executive chairman John Prineas said.

“When combined with the early-stage results of the auger drilling, which confirmed a very significant and exciting discovery of high-grade rare earths mineralisation to the east of the main deposit at Araxá, it is clear that our efforts on the ground are starting to showcase the outstanding endowment, scale and growth potential at the project.

“And we are confident there is more good news to come.”

Upscaled deeper diamond drilling is now underway, with three diamond drill rigs on site operating in tandem with the RC drill rig. That should deliver a strong pipeline of assays and drilling updates.

“At a time when investors are increasingly looking for quality rare earths and niobium projects, Araxá is shaping as a stand-out with many competitive advantages that make it a compelling rare earths and niobium development opportunity,” Prineas said.

“Mineralisation starts from surface and is free-digging, supporting a potential low cost open-pit mining operation.

“Araxá’s key feature, of course, is the large, high-grade resource – and we are excited that the drilling underway is continuing to showcase the quality of the near-surface, high-grade mineralisation.”

This article was developed in collaboration with St George Mining, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.