St George Mining Ltd (ASX:SGQ, FRA:S0G, OTC:SGQMF) has signed a strategic alliance with Brazilian technology company Nanum Nanotecnologia to explore downstream processing opportunities for rare earths from its Araxá project in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) will focus on assessing technologies to commercialise cerium contained in the project’s large rare earth resource while upgrading the concentration of higher-value magnet rare earths such as neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr).
Araxá hosts a globally significant carbonatite-hosted rare earth deposit with a mineral resource of 70.91 million tonnes at 4.06% total rare earth oxides (TREO), making it the largest and highest-grade deposit of its kind in South America.
While the project contains valuable magnet rare earths and heavy rare earth elements such as dysprosium and yttrium, cerium and lanthanum make up a large portion of the overall resource. These elements are generally lower value but can still be used in applications including catalytic converters, metal alloys and certain magnets.
St George is developing proprietary technology to separate cerium and lanthanum from the rare earth product as part of its metallurgical test work program. Removing these components could potentially increase the concentration of NdPr and heavy rare earths by up to three times, creating a higher-value rare earth oxide product.
Under the alliance, St George and Nanum will collaborate on a number of workstreams including metallurgical testing, evaluating processing technologies and optimising the flowsheet for rare earth product production.
Nanum specialises in nanomaterial technologies and has developed processes for producing commercial products from cerium, making it a potential partner for converting the separated material into marketable products.
The companies will also assess potential marketing strategies for cerium products produced from Araxá, including the possibility of securing long-term offtake arrangements.
Thiago Amaral, St George Brazil country head (on left) and Fernando Contadini, CEO of Nanum (on right) signing the MoU.
St George executive chairman John Prineas said the collaboration could unlock additional value from the project’s large rare earth inventory.
“The magnet and heavy rare earths hosted in our world-class Araxá rare earths resource are very significant and the main driver for development of a rare earths mining operation,” he said.
“The opportunity to also monetise the cerium component of the Araxá rare earths deposit can add material value to a potential mining operation at Araxá.