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St George sets the stage for Araxá growth with high-grade REE and niobium hits

• St George delivers wide and high-grade REE and niobium hits at Araxá
• Results contain high proportion of magnet rare earths
• Drilling outside MRE also returns thick, high-grade intercepts

Special Report: St George Mining has returned more shallow, broad and high-grade rare earths and niobium intercepts from diamond drilling at the Araxá project in Brazil.

One hole returned 43m at 8.02% TREO and 0.74% Nb2O5 from surface within a broader 62.95m interval at 5.80% TREO and 0.57% Nb2O5.

It also contained a richer 21m zone grading 10.61% TREO and 0.67% Nb2O5 from 15m.

St George (ASX:SGQ) has now completed 13,700m of drilling in the current campaign.

Other significant intercepts from the latest 13 holes included 55.2m at 3.47% TREO and 0.42% Nb2O5, 31m at 4.59% TREO and 0.83% Nb2O5, and 26m at 4.20% TREO and 0.80% Nb2O5.

“It is pleasing to see the latest drill results continuing to deliver very high-grade rare earths and niobium from surface,” said St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas.

“These results continue to confirm a very large volume of mineralisation with exceptionally thick mineralised intercepts.”

Drilling for growth

Ongoing drilling has already delivered a 75% increase in the Araxá MRE, lifting the total to 70.91Mt at 4.06% TREO and 0.62% Nb2O5.

It also generated a 218% increase in the measured and indicated category to 29.49Mt at 4.56% TREO and 0.75% Nb2O5.

The latest results cover resource definition and step out drilling.

According to the company, the new assays highlight the strong grade tenor and significant mineralised thickness across the central portion of the Araxá system.

The mineralisation is also believed to contain a high proportion of magnet rare earths, consistent with the profile seen across the MRE so far.

Meanwhile, drilling beyond the current resource continues to show expansion potential.

One hole about 200m from the existing MRE pierced 19.35m at 5.65% TREO and 0.76% Nb2O5 from 7.75m, within a thicker 100.35m interval grading 1.73% TREO and 0.33% Nb2O5 from surface.

Another step-out hole returned 138.1m at 2.97% TREO and 0.45% Nb2O5 from surface, demonstrating the presence of thick, consistent mineralisation beyond the resource.

“It is exciting to also see these thick, high-grade intercepts outside the existing footprint of the MRE – as highlighted by the 100m thick intercept in step-out hole AXDD107 – which emphasises that we have not yet reached the limit of the mineral system and further resource growth is likely from additional expansion drilling,” Prineas said.

Scale potential

The ongoing drilling is expected to support a further resource upgrade and generate important data to feed into the project’s feasibility study.

Prineas also highlighted similarities between Araxá and globally-significant carbonatite-hosted rare earths operations such as Mountain Pass in the US and Mt Weld in WA, operated by Lynas (ASX:LYC).

“We have a compelling opportunity to join these two world leaders in the rare earths sector with our drilling demonstrating continuity and scale of the high-grade mineralisation that provides confidence for reserve modelling in the feasibility study work underway,” he said.

Drilling at Araxá continues around the clock, focused on resource definition within the MRE as well as further expansion.

Source: Stockhead