St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) has reported further outstanding assay results from ongoing diamond drilling at its 100%-owned Araxá rare earths and niobium project in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Assay results for a further 13 diamond drill holes have been received including these thick, high-grade intercepts from surface:
- AXDD103 intersected:
- 43m @ 8.02% TREO and 0.74% Nb₂O₅ from surface including
- 21m @ 10.61% TREO and 0.67% Nb₂O₅ from 15m including
- 4.4m @ 20.14% TREO and 0.08% Nb₂O₅ from 21.65m,
- 21m @ 10.61% TREO and 0.67% Nb₂O₅ from 15m including
- within a broader interval of 62.95m @ 5.80% TREO and 0.57% Nb₂O₅ from surface
- 43m @ 8.02% TREO and 0.74% Nb₂O₅ from surface including
- AXDD104 intersected:
- 55.2m @ 3.47% TREO and 0.42% Nb₂O₅ from surface including
- 41m @ 4.01% TREO and 0.40% Nb₂O₅ from 7m including
- 2m @ 8.04% TREO and 0.59% Nb₂O₅ from 41m,
- 41m @ 4.01% TREO and 0.40% Nb₂O₅ from 7m including
- within a broader interval of 150.85m @ 2.48% TREO and 0.26% Nb₂O₅ from surface
- 55.2m @ 3.47% TREO and 0.42% Nb₂O₅ from surface including
- AXDD096 intersected:
- 31m @ 4.59% TREO and 0.83% Nb₂O₅ from surface including
- 19.15m @ 5.17% TREO and 0.94% Nb₂O₅ from 10.75m,
- within a broader interval of 96.25m @ 2.82% TREO and 0.44% Nb₂O₅ from surface
- 31m @ 4.59% TREO and 0.83% Nb₂O₅ from surface including
- AXDD108 intersected:
- 26m @ 4.20% TREO and 0.80% Nb₂O₅ from surface and
- 19m @ 1.16% TREO and 1.04% Nb₂O₅ from 42m including
- 1m @ 1.41% TREO and 3.26% Nb₂O₅ from 54m,
- within a broader interval of 96.75m @ 2.00% TREO and 0.63% Nb₂O₅ from surface
The drill holes include both resource definition holes within the Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) as well as large step-out drill holes like AXDD107 (200m step-out), which intersected 19.35m @ 5.65% TREO and 0.76% Nb₂O₅ from 7.75m within a broader interval of 100.35m @ 1.73% TREO and 0.33% Nb₂O₅ from surface.
St George has completed 13,700m of drilling in the current drill campaign at Araxá (excluding East Araxá). Drilling continues 24/7 with a focus on targets for both resource definition within the MRE footprint as well as MRE expansion.
Drilling in this campaign has already achieved a 75% increase in the maiden MRE plus a 218% increase in the Measured & Indicated category of the MRE. Ongoing drilling is expected to support a further upgrade to the resource.
Commenting on the latest drilling results, executive chairman John Prineas said:
“It is pleasing to see the latest drill results continuing to deliver very high-grade rare earths and niobium from surface. Highest grades were 25.37% TREO in AXDD103 and 3.26% Nb₂O₅ in AXDD108.
“Additionally, these results continue to confirm a very large volume of mineralisation with exceptionally thick mineralised intercepts. 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.
“Our Araxá MRE continues to be compared in scale and grade to the two largest producing rare earths mines outside of China – the Mountain Pass mine of MP Materials (NYSE: MP) and the Mt Weld mine of Lynas Rare Earths (ASX: LYC) – both of which are the same carbonatite-hosted style of deposit as our Araxá deposit.
“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.”
