St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) has announced a major breakthrough at its 100 per cent-owned Araxá Project in Minas Gerais, Brazil, with the discovery of high-grade rare earths mineralisation.
Assays from the initial 22 shallow auger drill holes have confirmed grades of up to 13.4 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO), marking a significant extension to the existing high-grade deposit located about one kilometre from the known JORC-compliant resource.
The standout intercept, hole AXAG022, was drilled to 14 metres depth and returned 13.5 metres at 12.34 per cent TREO from just 0.5 metres down, ending in mineralisation of 13.4 per cent TREO.
Notably, the ratio of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) to TREO reached up to 35 per cent, with NdPr concentrations as high as 3.33 per cent NdPr (33,300 ppm), elements critical for permanent magnets used in electric vehicles and clean energy technologies.
This auger drilling program, designed as a reconnaissance exploration over a 0.5 square kilometre area east of the current resource, has successfully identified a very significant extension of the high-grade carbonatite-hosted deposit.
The Araxá Project shares geological similarities with major non-Chinese rare earths mines such as Mountain Pass in California and Mt Weld in Western Australia, underpinning its global strategic importance.
Five drilling rigs are currently active at Araxá, advancing resource expansion and definition drilling, with follow-up reverse circulation and diamond drilling planned to delineate the new discovery further.
St George’s Executive Chairman John Prineas commented on the results: “We could not have hoped for better results from the initial drilling with assays received for the first batch of 22 holes confirming high-grade rare earths from surface across a broad area of 0.5 sq km.
“The exceptionally high grades of TREO and NdPr are impressive and suggest we have discovered an area which is very rich in rare earths mineralisation.”
John Prineas expressed enthusiasm about the new discovery’s growth potential, noting that the project already has a world-class JORC-compliant rare earths resource.
He stated that the company will prioritise follow-up reverse circulation and diamond drilling to define the size of the new mineralised zone, which could substantially increase the existing large-scale resource.
This new discovery bolsters Araxá’s status as a world-class rare earths and niobium project located adjacent to CBMM’s globally leading niobium operations.
St George aims to advance the project toward meeting growing global demand for critical minerals integral to clean energy and advanced technologies.
