St George teams with Brazilian scientific agencies to maximise niobium and REE processing

St George Mining enters technical collaboration with Brazilian scientific agencies EMBRAPII and SENAI
Co-venture will develop a new and sustainable process to maximise niobium and REE recovery from the Araxá project
Company will have 10-year exclusivity to commercialise IP developed by the co-venture with no royalties or other fees

Special Report: St George Mining is progressing its high-grade Araxá niobium-rare earth element project in Brazil by working with two of the country’s leading scientific agencies to develop a sustainable processing flow sheet.

Under the agreement with EMBRAPII and SENAI, studies of Araxá mineralisation will be conducted to develop a new and sustainable process to maximise the recovery of niobium and REEs from the project in the mining state of Minas Gerais.

This will consist of three stages:

Ore characterisation and concentration tests
Process optimisation (production of REEs and niobium oxide at lab scale); and
Production of iron-niobium alloy and /or niobium metal (from niobium oxide).

The majority of the costs will be borne by EMBRAPII (50%) and SENAI (10%) with St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) picking up the remaining 40%.

Adding interest, the company will have the exclusive right to commercialise the intellectual property developed by the technical co-venture for 10 years with no royalty or other fee payable to the two agencies.

The company had previously reached a memorandum of understanding with SENAI to cooperate on the research, development and production of REE magnets at the Lab Fab facility established by SENAI in Minas Gerai.

“The Technical Collaboration Agreement is a key step to support the development of an optimum processing flowsheet for the Araxá project,” executive chairman John Prineas said.

“We are delighted to have finalised this agreement with SENAI and EMBRAPII which has the potential to provide a major breakthrough in the efficiency and sustainability of mining and processing activities at Araxá.

“Signing of this Technical Collaboration Agreement is testament not just to Araxá’s potential but also to the quality and experience of the in-country team that St George has assembled to drive the project forward.”

Araxá project

The project is adjacent to and in the same carbonatite complex as the world’s largest niobium mine owned by CBMM, which produces around 80% of the world’s niobium.

This region also has a long history of commercial niobium production, access to infrastructure and workforce, first-rate in-country management and government support for expedited project approvals.

Araxá itself has been significantly de-risked, with extensive high-grade niobium and REE mineralisation from surface confirmed by drilling.

More than 500 intercepts of high-grade niobium (>1% Nb2O5) and rare earths with grades up to 8% Nb2O5 and 33% TREO have been reported.

Earlier this week, SGQ raised $20m through a placement of shares priced at 2c each to institutional and sophisticated investors to fund the cost of acquiring and exploring the project.

Shareholder approval for the capital raising and other payments will be sought at a general meeting to be held in early to mid-February 2025 in order to complete the acquisition of Araxá before March 15, 2025.

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.