As St George Mining keeps the drill bits busy spinning at the company’s fully owned Araxá rare earths and niobium project in Brazil, its latest assays have once again screamed “grade”, “scale” and “continuity”.
From a batch of 13 diamond drill holes, the company has shone a spotlight on three of its latest top hits, all straight from surface.
The headline intercept delivered a hefty 43 metres at 8.02 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) and 0.74 per cent niobium pentoxide, including 21m at 10.61 per cent TREO and a 4.4-metre spike at an impressive 20.14 per cent TREO.
Not to be outdone, the second best hole returned 41m at 4.01 per cent TREO and 0.40 per cent niobium pentoxide from 7m, within a broader 150.85m mineralised run at 2.48 per cent TREO.
The next hole added 31m at 4.59 per cent TREO and 0.83 per cent niobium pentoxide from surface, within a massive 96.25m run going 2.82 per cent TREO.
The bigger takeaway for the punters is that the mineralised system appears to be stretching beyond the footprint of the current mineral resource estimate.
Additionally, a northern step-out hole, put in 200m further out to the north-northeast of the drilling pattern, intersected 19.35m at 5.65 per cent TREO and 0.76 per cent niobium pentoxide from 7.75m.
Sitting within a broader 100.35m assaying 1.73 per cent TREO and 0.33 per cent niobium pentoxide from surface, the result pushes the known mineralised footprint a further 240m northwards and confirms the system is still growing.
Impressively, the ground to the northeast of that hole remains untested and mineralisation remains open, highlighting clear potential for further resource growth through continued step-out drilling.
St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said: “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, which emphasises that we have not yet reached the limit of the mineral system.”
The Araxá deposit already hosts a world-class JORC 2012 resource of 70.91 million tonnes at 4.06 per cent TREO and 0.62 per cent niobium pentoxide, with mineralisation beginning from surface and contained entirely within a 120m vertical depth.
The majority of drilling has been undertaken above the base of oxidation – that is, above fresh rock – although a handful of holes have pierced the upper levels of the bedrock, revealing lower-grade end-of-hole TREO and niobium mineralisation.
The project sits in Brazil’s mining-friendly state of Minas Gerais, and next door to CBMM’s long-running niobium mine and established infrastructure, which should help de-risk the development runway.
St George says it has completed 13,700m of drilling in its current campaign at Araxá and is running drill rigs around the clock, tightening up drill spacing to support grade continuity and setting the stage for future reserves modelling and estimation.
The current campaign has already achieved a 75 per cent increase in the maiden resource estimate and delivered a 218 per cent increase to the combined measured and indicated resource.
Alongside the drill results, the company is also advancing metallurgy and broader development studies, with economic findings targeted for the June and September quarters. An additional resource update has been pencilled in for the September quarter.
With thick intercepts from surface still rolling in and step-outs continuing to expand the envelope, Araxá is shaping up as the kind of drilling story that can keep the market’s attention.
If the northern extension drilling keeps delivering, the next resource upgrade could be significantly enlarged.
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By Doug Bright
