St George Mining has formally kicked off the permitting process for a potential mine at its massive Araxá rare earths and niobium project in Brazil, lodging key environmental documents within the State of Minas Gerais. The move represents a significant milestone, shifting the project from discovery and definition into the formal approvals pathway towards development.
The company has submitted its Environmental Impact Assessment and its Environmental Impact Report to the State Foundation for the Environment. The two formal documents represent 14 months of detailed environmental and technical studies and comprise the first step in the multi-stage licensing process required for a greenfields development. The proposal embraces an open-pit mine, a new industrial complex with processing and refining plants and all associated infrastructure.
Environmental licensing in the nation's premier state, Minas Gerais, is a three-stage process. The first stage is a Preliminary Licence, which certifies the environmental feasibility and location of a project. It is followed by an Installation Licence authorising construction and finally, an Operation Licence permitting the construction, commissioning, and operation of the mine and industrial complex at the Araxá project.
St George says it expects the first two stages to be completed within 12 months, putting it on a timeline for a potential construction start in the second half of 2029, subject to a final investment decision.
The move to permitting comes just weeks after the company tabled a major resource upgrade for Araxá, which it now describes as the largest high-grade carbonatite-hosted rare earths resource in South America. The project contains a massive JORC-compliant resource of 111.2 million tonnes grading an impressive 3.57 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) and 0.57 per cent niobium pentoxide.
Importantly, about 68 per cent of that resource, or 75.2 million tonnes, falls in the combined high-confidence Measured and Indicated categories, providing a solid foundation for the feasibility study being run in parallel by global engineering firm Worley.
Minas Gerais is a well-established Brazilian mining state and the local area surrounding St George's Araxá possesses extensive supportive mining-related infrastructure and a skilled workforce.
The deposit is notable for its thick high-grade rare earths and niobium mineralisation from surface, which has yet to be fully tested to its limits and retains plenty of upside. An additional benefit intrinsic to the shallow mineralised zones identified to date is that they are suited to a “free-dig” operation, avoiding the need for the style of drill and blast operations required when mining harder rocks.
St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said: “We are very pleased to have commenced the formal environmental licensing process for our proposed mine development at Araxá. Our studies have assessed the potential environmental impacts of our proposed development as well as the operating procedures required for sustainable mining that meets the highest ESG standards. Araxá has world-class scale and grade, further enhanced by project logistics that are second to none."
With the world increasingly scrambling to secure supplies of critical minerals outside of China, Brazil is fast emerging as a key jurisdiction for new rare earths development with a supportive government.
St George's permitting application covers a project that is still expanding. Infill and extension drilling at Araxá is ongoing, with mineralisation open in all directions and a newly discovered high-grade zone continuing to grow one kilometre east of the main resource area.
With the formal approvals process now officially underway for its giant Brazilian deposit, St George is steadily working its way down the list of regulatory requirements to turn its world-class resource into what could easily become a globally significant mining operation. In a market desperate for new sources of rare earths and niobium, St George's development proposals seems to be a classic case of the right project, in the right place, at the right time.
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By Doug Bright
