St George Mining has kicked off a major downstream processing study at its high-grade niobium-rare earths project Araxá in Brazil, as it looks to fast-track the project to production having last week completed the acquisition.
The company will conduct metallurgical and recovery test work in collaboration with leading Brazilian scientific agencies EMBRAPII and SENAI. Its focus will be on optimising niobium and rare earth recoveries via flotation processing to ensure maximum efficiency and sustainability in future high-grade production.
St George’s comprehensive metallurgical program has already been initiated and a substantial drilling campaign is also scheduled to begin this month.
Management says the test work will require three large representative samples - each exceeding 60 kilograms - selected from across the project area. The samples cover a range of mineralisation types and will undergo bench-scale test work to refine the processing flowsheet.
With the Araxá acquisition finalised and $20 million in recent funding, the company says it has a strong financial base to carry out all required studies and drive the project to commercialisation.
St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said: “We are excited to now have boots on the ground at Araxá following completion of the project acquisition last week. We have a number of important work programs scheduled to commence in the coming weeks including our maiden drill campaign, geophysical surveys, geotechnical studies and downstream processing studies – as well as the release of our maiden JORC mineral resource estimate.”
The company has a highly credentialled technical team in-country to fast-track the development studies, which includes former senior executives from Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração (CBMM).
CBMM is the world’s dominant producer of niobium and has an open pit and processing operations right next to St George’s Araxá project.
CBMM’s own Araxá niobium mine is a world-class deposit with some 896 million tonnes at 1.49 per cent niobium pentoxide. The Brazilian unit of the Mosaic Company has an Araxá phosphate mine with 519mt grading 13.4 per cent phosphorous pentoxide. Both projects exploit Barreiro carbonatite host rock.
St George’s processing study is set to define the best methods to recover high-purity niobium and rare earths. The company expects a standard optimised flotation flowsheet of grinding, magnetic separation of iron-rich minerals, desliming and flotation for a premium concentrate product.
St George is set for a busy first half of the year. It expects to deliver a JORC-compliant mineral resource and the initial metallurgical test results from its flotation studies in the next quarter.
The company will then nail down follow-up drilling campaigns to expand its resource confidence to progress to pilot plant studies.
Niobium is essential in high-strength steel, clean energy technologies and next-generation batteries and demand for the critical mineral is expected to surge in the coming years.
St George has secured the industry’s top talent in its bid to become the next force in niobium production, forging partnerships with global leaders and is executing a disciplined development strategy.
With test work and resource drilling underway, the company is making rapid progress towards transforming Araxá into what it hopes will be the next world-class mine to emerge from the fabled Barreiro carbonatite complex.
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By Andrew Todd
