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.
Araxá already hosts a world-class Mineral Resource Estimate of 40.6Mt @ 4.13% TREO to make it the largest and highest-grade carbonatite-hosted REE deposit in South America and second-highest grade in the Western world. An aggressive drilling campaign by St George aims to increase the MRE.
The latest batch of assays for a further 10 diamond drill holes confirmed that all intersected thick, high-grade mineralisation from surface including:
- 135.2m @ 3.37% TREO and 0.58% Nb₂O₅ from surface in AXDD042 including:
- 38.8m @ 4.40% TREO and 0.82% Nb₂O₅ from 0m
- 99.2m @ 4.63% TREO and 0.61% Nb₂O₅ from surface in AXDD043 including:
- 20.7m @ 4.48% TREO and 1.01% Nb₂O₅ from 0m
- 22m @ 5.31% TREO and 0.51% Nb₂O₅ from 51m
- 85.8m @ 5.16% TREO and 0.72% Nb₂O₅ from surface in AXDD044 including:
- 22m @ 7.48% TREO and 1.05% Nb₂O₅ from 12m
- 12.8m @ 7.41% TREO and 0.51% Nb₂O₅ from 49m
- 108m @ 3.42% TREO and 0.48% Nb₂O₅ from surface in AXDD045 including:
- 5m @ 5.66% TREO and 0.75% Nb₂O₅ from 0m
- 81.2m @ 4.51% TREO and 0.72% Nb₂O₅ from surface in AXDD047 including:
- 23.8m @ 5.29% TREO and 0.72% Nb₂O₅ from 9.2m
- 100.6m @ 3.92% TREO and 0.48% Nb₂O₅ from surface in AXDD048 including:
- 14.85m @ 7.35% TREO and 0.60% Nb₂O₅ from 0m
The new results highlight the remarkable continuity and thickness of the extensive high-grade mineralisation and point to the potential for a very large increase in the volume of the Araxá resource.
Expansion and resource definition drilling continues 24/7 with three diamond core rigs and one RC rig – with the drill campaign extending into 2026 indefinitely. There are 31 drill holes at the laboratory with assays pending.
“It’s non-stop drilling at Araxá with exceptional results continuing to roll in,” executive chairman John Prineas said.
“Significantly, with mineralisation open in all directions, we still have not found the limits of the system. The ongoing drill campaign will, we believe, deliver more tremendous intercepts that have the potential to have a very positive impact on the volume of the resource.
“The latest results again highlight three of the favourable features that distinguish Araxá from other projects in development – very high grades, a resource that starts from surface and abundant volumes of both niobium and rare earths. These features have the potential to be huge value drivers for Araxá as we move towards development studies.
“We look forward to reporting further assay results over the coming weeks and keeping shareholders updated as we continue to advance our work at Araxá.”
