St George Mining shuts down online misinformation about advanced niobium project in Brazil

WA critical minerals explorer St George Mining has rejected false online claims circulating about the Brazilian advanced niobium project it is buying. During last week’s Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, St George announced it was raising $21.25 million to buy the Araxa high-grade niobium project in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The company said one of the key factors in its decision was the project was next to the niobium mine of CBMM, a company which produced about 80 per cent of the world’s niobium. But on Monday St George told the ASX it was aware of misinformation circulating in online chat rooms and social media regarding Araxa. The company spoke about claims an active tailings dam was within the project area and that significant high-grade mineralisation discovered at the project was beneath the tailings dam. “This information is false,” the company said. St George explained CBMM operated until 1985 a tailings dam — called Dam B4, and sometimes referred to as Dam 4 in CBMM’s English-language publications — on tenement 832.150/1989 that was now part of Araxa. St George said CBMM was responsible for managing the dam and had progressively rehabilitated and integrated it into the environment — that is, the dam was dry, had been sealed and was stable. “Importantly, the significant niobium intersections at Araxa — being more than 500 intercepts of greater than 1 per cent (niobium pentoxide) — that St George will use to underpin a potential maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource are located on tenement 831.972/1985,” the company said. “Any JORC-compliant mineral resource will not extend into the tenement that hosts historical Dam B4, located on tenement 832.150/1989. “No other tailings dams — neither historical nor presently active — are within the project area or proximal to the project.” St George said there was a small catchment dam in the southern margin of the project area. “This is not a tailings facility but a small rainwater catchment dam known as Dam D that was designed to divert rainwater from Dam B4,” the company said. “With the rehabilitation of Dam B4, Dam D is also being decommissioned. “There are no significant intercepts of high-grade mineralisation coincident with Dam D. “It is considered to pose no environmental risks.” St George said advice from highly credentialled, independent technical consultants indicated an open-pit mining operation could be established on tenement 831.972/1985, with no impediments posed by the rehabilitated Dam B4. The company said a further detailed geotechnical study was required for progress to a mining operation, with this underway and being conducted by engineering firm Walm Engenharia, which had previously advised several mining companies in Minas Gerais, including CBMM. Speaking last week when the acquisition announcement was made, St George executive chairman John Prineas said the company had seized on the opportunity to buy Araxa, with niobium being a bright spot among the currently gloomy critical minerals space. The company’s share price rose 20.6 per cent on the news last Tuesday, with Mr Prineas saying good projects such as Araxa “will shine through” and “the market sees the value in them”. And the market on Monday accepted St George’s explanation of the Dam B4 situation, with the share price rising 36 per cent to 3.4c at 10am, and closing up 32 per cent at 3.3c. Mr Prineas said niobium was traditionally used to strengthen steel so it was used in the construction of large buildings and bridges. However, there were also emerging applications in medical equipment such as MRI machines and electric vehicle batteries, he said. He said putting niobium into electric vehicle batteries allowed them to charge faster and have a much longer life. Mr Prineas said St George remained committed to its suite of lithium, nickel and copper projects projects in WA, including Mt Alexander in the northern Goldfields. He said a key issue in buying the Brazilian project was the company’s WA projects were in the early stages of development, whereas Araxa had already been comprehensively explored.