SGQ keeps hitting 100m+ rare earth intercepts from surface

Our rare earths and niobium Investment St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) just released more 100m+ fully mineralised intercepts from its rare earth project in Brazil.

SGQ owns 100% of the largest and highest-grade carbonatite-hosted rare earth deposit in South America…

… and the third highest grade REE deposit globally in the Western world following a recent resource upgrade.

(source)

SGQ is currently drilling the project with three rigs, so the resource may continue to get larger, especially with results like today’s….

Today, SGQ released further drilling results, continuing with high grade ~100m intercepts (holes ending in mineralisation and one across 160m (which also ended in mineralisation).

Some highlight results (all from within the resource area) include:

• 160.65m @ 3.74% total rare earths and 0.54% niobium from surface, including 15.35m @ 13.86% total rare earths and 1.19% niobium (hole 077).
• 111.3m @ 3.85% total rare earths and 0.66% niobium from surface, including 1.25m @ 5.05% niobium (hole 067).
• 101m @ 4.72% total rare earths and 0.65% niobium from surface (hole 065).

(source)

And here is a look from a standard aerial view:

(source)

And here is a cross section of today’s results which show mineralisation to the end of every hole:

(source)

These results follow a major resource upgrade announced just last week and provide confidence for further material resource upgrades in the future.

We covered the resource upgrade in an article here: SGQ: New upgraded resource: 75% bigger at 70.91Mt @ 4.06% TREO (and 0.62% niobium) - with drilling ongoing…

SGQ’s project is located adjacent to the CBMM mine, which has its advantages as pointed out by SGQ’s Executive Chairman in today’s announcement:

(source)

What’s next for SGQ?

Drilling results 🔄

SGQ is currently drilling its project 24/7 with three diamond core rigs and one RC rig.

On top of the upgraded MRE recently (source), SGQ is drilling aggressively with 44 holes recently completed NOT included in this recent upgrade plus 50 more holes planned in the coming 2 months. The drill results from these could feed another significant resource upgrade.

Prior to the MRE upgrade, SGQ said that drilling will continue indefinitely into 2026. (source)

In the short term the main thing we want to see are drill results confirming big extensions at depth and to the north/east/west of SGQ’s current JORC resource estimate:

(Source)

Beyond the drilling 🔄

Over the next 12 months, a lot of the catalysts for SGQ could come at hard-to-forecast times:

• Updates on downstream processing strategy - We want to see SGQ define its downstream rare earths strategy. We are especially looking forward to an update in relation to the US. SGQ recently extended its agreement with US magnet producer REalloys, who SGQ is aiming to supply feedstock to (source). SGQ has confirmed there are talks with more downstream partners and offtake partners, plus multiple strategic investors.
• Work on development studies - SGQ has already commenced environmental, geotechnical and development studies, which were mentioned as continuing here and in the most recent quarterly, that negotiations with the government were underway to expedite these (source). The economic study is due in H1.

Recently, SGQ confirmed a scoping study for a niobium mine and feasibility studies for rare earths were underway. (source)

• Pilot plant trials - SGQ has signed an agreement with CEFET to jointly collaborate on a new Pilot Plant trial that will build on the prior 9 month trial from 2012-13 which successfully produced rare earth product at over 99% purity and recoveries of 86% TREO. The pilot plant is expected to begin in H2

SGQ is also participating in the “MAGBRAS Initiative” - a program that has major automakers like Stellantis working toward building Brazil’s first permanent magnet-making facility.

• Metwork and sample production - SGQ should have results from this in the pipeline with the creation of the St George Technical Centre. The main catalyst we are looking forward to is the restarting of SGQ’s pilot plant with development of this underway with the agreement signed with CEFET to host and jointly collaborate. This will allow for product samples to be produced for potential strategics/offtake partners. Met testwork results are expected in H1.
• Permitting - SGQ is targeting completion for permitting to progress throughout 2026 with 2 mining concession applications and 1 exploration permit.

(source)