St George Mining jumps on thick REE hits from surface – and it's not even in US

St George Mining jumps on thick REE hits from surface – and it's not even in US

Jonathon Davidson

The Market Online, Australia

St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) jumped nearly +15% in early arvo trades Wednesday after flagging intercepts of relatively high grade total rare earth oxides from around surface depths, and the former obscure mineral darling niobium (see: WA1 Resources), since supplanted by antimony.

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But the grades on offer were, on their own, eye-catching – drilling outside of the existing mineral resource boundary on-site at its Araxa project in Brazil, the company flagged a 48 metre wide drill hit grading at 5.7% TREO from 2m depth; 15m of which was at grades of over 12% from 4m depth.

That on its own likely would have caused a response in a market hungry for REE juniors, as evidenced by the fact this company isn’t even in the U.S.

(Although the company has inked a strategic agreement with the States.)

All in all, this gives St George a new target area of interest one kilometre east of its existing mineralised boundary envelope, which the company reports also remains prospective for neodymium (NdPr) and “high grades of heavy rare earths.

Touching on what the REE thematic is truly born from now – defence manufacturing – St George noted that trace amounts of the obscure mineral samarium were found, part of cobalt magnets that go into F-35 fighter jets.

And then from the JORC point of view, the latest drill run “[indicates] potential to add a significant volume of near surface, high-grade rare earths and niobium mineralisation to an updated MRE.” Possibly also informing risk-on sentiment from traders on Wednesday is that St George boasts an REE project defined by carbonatites, and not ionic clays. (One which the company calls the largest in South America.)

“The volume of mineralisation being defined by the RC drilling in this new area – located 1km east of the MRE envelope – points to the potential for a significant addition to the Araxá MRE, already the highest grade undeveloped JORC-compliant rare earths resource globally,” SGQ EC John Prineas said, nodding to the company’s existing April classification.

“The USA has relied on magnets – even for the powerful Samarium Cobalt magnets used in F-35 fighters – from China. St George, through its downstream strategic alliance in the US2, is perfectly positioned to contribute to establishing a US domestic supply chain for these important magnets.”

SGQ last traded at 9cps.

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Jonathon Davidson

The Market Online, Australia

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