St George Mining appoints Carla Grasso to drive mine planning at Araxá Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock

St George Mining Ltd (ASX:SGQ, FRA:S0G, OTC:SGQMF) has appointed Brazilian resource geologist Carla Grasso as principal geologist for its Araxá rare earths-niobium project in Minas Gerais, adding in-country technical leadership as it advances economic studies for a potential mining operation.

Grasso will be based in the city of Araxá and will take a lead role in mine planning for the 100%-owned project, with responsibilities spanning mineral resource modelling, reserve estimation, grade control, pit optimisation and geometallurgical assessment. Her role also includes overseeing resource reporting, coordinating geo-metallurgical programs and supporting both short and long-term mine planning.

The appointment comes as St George moves to build development momentum at Araxá following a recent resource upgrade that lifted total rare earth oxide and niobium tonnes. The company sees Grasso’s appointment as an important step in progressing technical studies needed to underpin a future mining operation.

Experienced local geologist joins development push

Grasso brings more than 21 years of experience in Brazil across resource modelling, reserve reporting, mine development and mining operations. She has worked for the past 15 years in and around Araxá, including at the neighbouring Araxá phosphate mine, giving her direct regional and operational experience relevant to St George’s project.

Most recently, she worked as a geologist specialist with The Mosaic Company from January 2018 to February 2026, where she held leadership responsibility for resource and mine planning across several Brazilian operations, including the Araxá phosphate project. Before that, she worked at Vale from September 2010 to December 2018, when Vale owned the Araxá phosphate asset.

Across those roles, Grasso managed resource model updates covering database validation, QA/QC analysis, geological modelling, grade estimation, density and geometallurgical variables, resource classification, reconciliation and drill spacing studies. She also worked closely with mine planning, processing and industrial teams on beneficiation plant productivity, ore quality and cost reduction initiatives.

Her qualifications also support the technical demands of the role. Grasso has experience reporting mineral resources and reserves under the JORC Code, US SK-1300 and Canada’s NI 43-101 standard, and is a qualified person under AusIMM and CBRR for mineral resource estimation and public technical reporting.

Academically, she holds a PhD in geology from the University of Brasília, focused on geometallurgy and mineralisation controls, a master’s degree in geology from the same university and a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of São Paulo.

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St George to join ASX All Ordinaries Index on March 23

It has already been a big week for St George, with the company yesterday announcing it will join the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Index at the start of trading on March 23, 2026, in another milestone for the company following its acquisition of the Araxá Rare Earths-Niobium Project in Brazil.

The inclusion places St George among the 500 largest companies on the ASX by market capitalisation and is expected to increase the company’s exposure to a wider pool of investors, including index-tracking funds and institutional investors.

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