St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) said an around 9 tonnes of near-surface saprolite material from the Araxá niobium-rare earths project in Brazil is being used in a pilot plant study, which commenced at CIT-SENAI, according to a Wednesday Australian bourse filing.
The niobium concentrate from the pilot plant study will undergo downstream processing test work targeting ferroniobium, the company said.
The rare-earth-enriched niobium flotation tailings will be evaluated through downstream hydrometallurgical testwork targeting an intermediate product such as mixed rare earth carbonate or rare earth oxalate, per the filing.
The mining exploration company's shares fell past 7% in recent trading on Wednesday.