St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) said results from ongoing diamond and reverse circulation drilling at its Araxá rare earths and niobium project in Brazil expanded the footprint of the high-grade mineralization both within and outside the existing mineral resource estimate, according to a Wednesday Australian bourse filing.

It encountered intercepts of 164.45 meters at 2.93% grade of total rare earth oxides and 0.39% grade of niobium oxide from the surface, as well as 82.7 meters at 4.86% grade of total rare earth oxides and 0.76% grade of niobium oxide from the surface.

The current mineral resource estimate is modelled to a depth of 100 meters below the surface. The ongoing drilling continues to identify mineralization rich in magnet rare earths, with a neodymium-praseodymium-to-total rare earth oxides ratio of around 20%.

Its shares rose 2% in recent trading on Wednesday.