Shares in ASX mineral explorer St George Mining Ltd (ASX: SGQ) have been on a tear in recent months.
Overall, they have risen from $0.02 per share in early January to $0.10 apiece at the time of writing.
This marks a spectacular 400% jump in less than a year.
For context, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) has increased by about 3.7% during the same period.
A key catalyst for this ascent has been the company's pivot into rare earths.
At the start of 2025, the ASX mining stock locked in the acquisition of its Araxá rare earths and niobium project in Brazil.
Since then, results from a series of exploration works have propelled St George onto the radar.
In particular, the group reported several rich intercepts of rare earths and niobium from exploration drilling, while also delivering a maiden mineral resource estimate at the project.
And the potential of Araxá didn't go unnoticed amongst the movers and shakers of the mining industry.
Just last month, Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, headlined a $72.5 million capital raising designed to move Araxá closer to production.
Here, the mining tycoon invested $22.5 million in St George through her private company, Hancock Prospecting.
And so far, Rinehart's investment appears to be bearing fruit.
What happened?
This morning, St George announced that thick and high-grade rare earths and niobium drill intercepts at Araxá have continued to expand the mineralised envelope.
More specifically, results from the latest six drill holes have confirmed consistent, shallow, and rich mineralisation outside of the current mineral resource.
St George Executive Chairman, John Prineas, commented:
These drilling results are exceptional and highlight the unrivalled quality of the thick, high-grade mineralisation at our Araxá Project. Significantly, the mineralisation remains open laterally in all directions and at depth.
As things stand, the "world class" resource at Araxá contains 1.7 million tonnes of total rare earths oxide (TREO) and 280,000 tonnes of niobium.
According to St George, it is already the largest and highest-grade carbonatite-hosted rare earths resource in South America.
However, the ASX mining stock believes the latest drill results could now potentially support a large expansion of the existing mineral resource estimate (MRE).
Prineas added:
All resource expansion holes and resource definition holes have demonstrated consistent continuity and grade, giving us confidence that this drill campaign will transform the scale of the MRE, redefine the value of our company and further position St George as one of the leaders in the rare earths and niobium sectors.
What next for this ASX rare earths stock?
Results from another 29 holes that have already been drilled remain pending.
Furthermore, the drilling campaign is ongoing as three rigs pepper Araxá in search of rare earths and niobium mineralisation.
In total, 40 more holes are planned as part of the current program.
St George expects to release the drill results over the coming weeks.
The ASX mining stock is also targeting an upgraded resource estimate for Araxá by the first quarter of next year.
