St George Mining Enters Brazil Niobium Space
THE CONFERENCE CALLER: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) provided Diggers and Dealers delegates a good reason to get out of bed on Day Two of the conference with news of a Brazilian niobium asset acquisition.
St George Mining has entered a binding conditional agreement to acquire all the issued capital of Itafos Araxá Mineracao E Fertilizantes S.A, which owns 100 per cent of the advanced niobium-REE Araxá project in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The Araxá project is in a good address, described by St George as the world’s ‘dress circle’ for niobium production that it considers providing the company with a great opportunity to become a global player in the niobium market.
In addition to niobium, high-grade rare earths mineralisation has been confirmed by drilling over a widespread area.
ST George Mining managing director and old friend of The Roadhouse John Prineas broke free of the crowd mulling around the company’s Diggers and Dealers booth to speak with us.
Resources Roadhouse: Why Niobium?
John Prineas: Niobium is a very stable market. There are only three primary producers in the world and the price of niobium has barely changed over the past four years
RR: Does being in Brazil provide better access to more markets?
JP: The beauty of Brazil is that it is the number one producer of niobium.
We are now in the same carbonatite geology as CBMM that produces approximately 80 per cent of the world’s niobium.
So, what it means is that we have the right geology and all the right infrastructure is already there
RR: How advanced is the project?
JP: The other strength of the project is its advanced nature. There are more than 500 intercepts of plus-one per cent niobium. That’s mineable grade.
Our job now is to go and drill it all out. Only ten per cent of the tenements has has been drilled out. We think there is an economic Resource there already that we can multiply with more drilling.
RR: What does this mean for the rest of the company’s portfolio?
JP: We’ll continue with our Western Australia assets. We remain very loyal to WA, but they are still early-stage projects.
Brazil offers a very clear pathway to monetise that asset with further drilling and development studies.
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