Acquisitions by MTM and WCN were a focal point of their respective quarters. Pic via Getty Images
Mining
It’s the quarterly season again as the ASX market announcements page becomes increasingly flooded with update lodgements.
To save you the trouble of trudging through it all, we’ve wrapped up the highlights from some of the reports that caught our eye.
Lithium exploration was the name of the game for Greentech Metals during the December 2023 quarter with the completion of a stratigraphic/exploration drill program of four holes totalling 1,611m at its West Pilbara lithium projects, which are close to Azure Mineral’s (ASX:AZS) Andover discovery.
Assays for the drill program are currently pending along with selected samples submitted for mineral identification analysis.
Rock chip sampling has also returned further high grade results from the Kobe and Southern trends with top hits of 1.82% Li2O and 2.31% Li2O from the Kobe and Kobe West while the Southern trend yielded a top result of 2.4% Li2O.
Spodumene mineralogy has already been confirmed in laboratory tests and a heritage clearance survey has been completed over key areas.
Towards the end of the quarter, MTM Critical Minerals underscored its commitment to rare earths by acquiring the West Arunta niobium-REE project that is immediately adjacent to tenements held by WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) and Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) where niobium-REE mineralised carbonatites have recently been discovered.
This is intriguing as drilling by WA1 has returned hits such as 54m at 0.62% niobium at P2 and 31m at 3.5% niobium at Luni while ENR enjoyed a 282m intersection @ 0.54% niobium and 0.17% total rare earth oxides (TREO).
Adding interest, the acquisition of the West Arunta project includes the Mukinbudin niobium-REE project in WA’s South West Mineral Field as well as the Flash Joule Heating (FJH) recycling and processing technology.
The latter is a new processing and recycling technology being developed to extract critical metals like REE, nickel, cobalt and lithium from natural mineralisation and from waste material including lithium-ion batteries, e-waste, coal fly ash produced by coal-fired power stations and ‘red mud’ waste derived from bauxite processing in the aluminium industry.
FJH has been demonstrated by test work to be scalable and to make recovered materials more amenable to metal recovery through conventional acid leaching methods.
Meanwhile, drilling at its Pomme project in Quebec intersected new broad zones of REE and niobium mineralisation and further TREO intersections.
Notable results include 468.35m @ 0.29% TREO & 0.06% niobium including 74.75m @ 0.47% TREO & 0.06% niobium and 330m @ 0.34% TREO & 0.02% niobium.
The company also expanded its landholding in Quebec by acquiring the Montviel South project 10km south of Pomme and received encouraging beneficiation results received for its East Laverton REE clays project.
Beneficiation work successfully increased the head grade from 3,071ppm TREO to 7,120ppm TREO by selectively removing coarse (large) particles, indicating that simple beneficiation may allow for a substantial reduction in waste processing and reduced reagent consumption in a future process plant design.
The company advanced the optimisation program to update feasibility study for its Bowdens silver project mine development, which has already received the NSW Independent Planning Commission’s approval and no objections from the state’s agencies.
Its optimisation program seeks to examine all aspects of the development including ore reserves, mine design, metallurgy, process design and economic and market considerations, and is scheduled for completion this year.
Meanwhile, ongoing project exploration has returned more high-grade mineralisation within the Southern Gold Zone and Bundarra Zone.
Notable results include:
The new intersections will be included in an updated resource estimate due for completion in 1H 2024.
Adding interest, SVL is continuing exploration drilling within and surrounding the Bowdens silver deposit and has nearly completed processing recent seismic survey lines and started interpretation for regional target generation.
During the quarter, the company’s Phase 1 bridging engineering study demonstrated the low operating cost and robust nature of its Zero Carbon Lithium project by keeping target NPV materially the same.
The study delivered a reduction in CAPEX and OPEX despite the inflationary environment, with the same target production capacity, while also increasing project definition to a “Class II” estimate.
VUL also started the process of securing structured debt and project-level equity financing with support from BNP Paribas.
This follows positive market sounding in 2023 from commercial banks, development banks, and government-backed export credit agencies, which includes a $200m non-binding letter of support from Export Finance Australia (EFA) during the quarter, and indication of ECA support from Canada, Italy, and France during 2023.
Additionally, the company received a positive decision by the Landau City Council in Germany to execute an agreement which allows it to begin construction of its integrated geothermal and lithium extraction plant on the intended land in the Landau region.
The opening of the plant during the quarter was also attended by key investors, offtakers and politicians while VUL has completed the environmental and social impact assessment for Phase 1, which is an important validation of its sustainability credentials.
The highlight of White Cliff Minerals’ December 2023 quarter was its acquisition of the 805km2 Coppermine project in Nunavut, Canada, that includes a number of historical, high-grade copper projects.
Coppermine hosts numerous extraordinarily high-grade copper lodes located along the same structural trend.
Previous exploration has validated dozens of highly prospective occurrences of copper and silver mineralisation with rock chip sampling returning results of up to 30.25% copper and 43g/t silver at the Halo prospect, 35.54% copper and 17g/t silver at Cu-Tar, and >40% copper and 115g/t silver at the Don prospect.
Historical production at the project includes 11.37Mlbs of copper with gold credits, 13.7Mlbs of uranium oxide, 34.2Moz of silver along with lead, nickel and cobalt.
Post-quarter, WCN also acquired the Radium Point project that was identified by the Northwest Territories Geoscience Office to have the highest potential for IOCG-uranium style mineralisation in Canada.
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