Local support helps St George put Brazil mine on critical minerals map

St George Mining will start a reverse circulation drilling program within days at its Araxa niobium-rare earths project in Brazil, as the company builds local community and government support to develop Araxa into a globally significant project. It expects to follow the reverse circulation program with a 10,000-metre, 16-week diamond drilling campaign in July.

The company has launched a major auger, reverse circulation and diamond drilling program for the Araxa project. The upcoming work will focus on resource expansion and upgrading the project’s inferred resource to at least the indicated category.

Scout augur drilling is already underway, with 16 holes drilled for about 211m. 

St George has negotiated government support for expedited project approvals and has assembled an experienced in-country team and established relationships with key parties and authorities in Brazil to drive the Araxa project through exploration work and development.

The company says it has been buoyed by the significant support it has received from the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais and the local Araxa community. 

St George executives met last week with local council representatives and community leaders in Araxa to deepen their relationship and understand community requirements. The company announced at the meeting that it will fund a range of health and wellbeing, education, environmental and other local projects.

St George signed a co-operation agreement in October last year, which recognises that the company proposes to make a significant investment in Minas Gerais. The recognition opened the way for the state to help the company develop the project through expedited permitting approvals and other initiatives. 

The agreement also recognises St George’s contribution to establishing domestic supply chains for the critical minerals required for Brazil’s clean energy transition.  

Minas Gerais is Brazil’s fourth biggest state, and its capital and largest city Belo Horizonte is a major urban and financial centre. Most of the state’s GDP comes from mining and related activities.

The broader region around St George’s project has a long history of mining multiple commodities, including commercial niobium production, and provides ready access to infrastructure and a skilled workforce.

The world-leading Araxa niobium mining operation, owned and operated by privately held Brazilian company Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração (CBMM), also sits close to Araxa city and shares the name with St George’s Araxa project.

CBMM’s giant niobium project contains 896 million tonnes at 1.49 per cent niobium pentoxide. Its main open pit is centred within the Barreiro carbonatite complex, about 2.7 kilometres south of St George’s Araxa project, which is nestled in the northern arc of the complex. 

St George Mining’s executive chairman John Prineas said: “The combination of local and state government support, a world-class resource, the location in an established mining region with access to infrastructure and a first-class in-country team of engineers experienced in mine construction and operation all contribute towards positioning St George very well to deliver on our vision for a globally significant rare earths and niobium mine at Araxá.”

St George has also established partnerships with leading Brazilian government-funded scientific and industry agencies to research innovative production processes and technologies that could be applied to its proposed Araxa mining operation. 

And the company has embraced the MAGBRAS Initiative that aims to establish Brazil’s first manufacturing facility to produce permanent magnets, which are a vital component in electric motors and power-generating systems. 

St George believes these relationships underpin its integration with government, the local community and the business sector in Brazil, which will ultimately deliver the smooth development of the Araxa project.

St George acquired 100 per cent of its Araxa project in February. The largely de-risked project has world-class potential and extensive high-grade niobium and rare earths mineralisation already confirmed by extensive previous drilling. 

The company announced a globally significant inaugural mineral resource estimate for Araxa in April of a combined 41.2 million tonnes of measured, indicated and inferred niobium mineralisation averaging 0.68 per cent niobium pentoxide.

It also delivered a combined measured, indicated and inferred resource of 40.64Mt at 4.13 per cent total rare earths oxides (TREO). 

Mineralisation at Araxa extends from surface, with more than 500 intercepts of high-grade niobium at better than 1 per cent niobium pentoxide, the principal ore mineral of niobium metal. The pentoxide content has reached grades of up to 8 per cent. The deposit also contains rare earths grading as high as 33 per cent TREO.

Importantly, while historical drilling was assayed predominantly for niobium and rare earths, it was not analysed for a full suite of metals, least of all for critical metals. Accordingly, St George proposes resampling and assaying some historical drill holes to determine their potential critical elements content.

The company has an in-country team led by regional specialists Thiago Amaral and Adriano Rios, who have a longstanding relationship with the communities in and around Araxá. 

Management’s vision is that the development of its Araxa project will put the city and Minas Gerais state on the world map as a globally significant source of strategic minerals essential for the world’s energy transition.

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