Auroch Minerals has changed its name to Future Battery Minerals to reflect its exploration focus on nickel and lithium, both of which are critical to present and future battery needs.
The name change is accompanied by a corresponding change in the company’s ASX ticker code from AOU to FBM.
Future Battery Minerals (ASX:FBM) is focused on exploring its two lithium projects – Kangaroo Hills in WA and the Nevada Lithium Project – and the Saints, Nepean and Leinster high-grade nickel sulphide projects in WA.
Kangaroo Hills is currently the focus of the company’s efforts, no surprise given the recent standout drill result of 29m grading 1.36% Li2O from a down-hole depth of 38m which along with other successful drill holes have proven that the project hosts significant lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites.
The same hole – KHRC011 – also happens to be a late addition to the drilling line-up which now indicates there’s potential for shallow pegmatite further east of the planned holes.
Assays are also pending for drilling at the Nevada Lithium Project where 10 out of the 15 holes drilled to test the San Antonne East and Western Flats prospects intersected claystone lithologies.
This is intriguing as the five prospective claim groups – Fraction, Heller, Lone Mountain,
San Antone and Western Flats – that make up the project surround existing lithium claystone deposits such as American Lithium Corp’s TLC deposit and American Battery Technology Corps’ Tonopah Flats deposits.
Nickel still at the heart
While lithium is the current focus of exploration, Future Battery Minerals has not forgotten its advanced nickel projects.
The company’s flagship Saints project about 70km north of Kalgoorlie is a high-grade komatiite nickel sulphide deposit with a current resource of 911,000t at 2.3% nickel, 0.17% copper and 0.07% cobalt for contained metal of 21,000t nickel, 1,500t copper and 600t cobalt.
Most of this resource is in the higher confidence Indicated category and work is currently underway on a Scoping Study into its viability as an underground mining operation.
Meanwhile, the Nepean nickel project – held in joint venture with Lodestar Resources (20%) – covers the historical high-grade Nepean mine, which was Australia’s second producing nickel mine with total output of 1.1Mt at 2.99% nickel for 32,202t of nickel from 1970 to 1987.
Extensive exploration consisting of exploration drilling and geophysics have been carried out and the shallow remnant mineralisation has been estimated at 236,000t at 1.5% nickel, 0.11% copper and 0.03% cobalt.
Future Battery Minerals also holds prospective exploration ground at the Leinster nickel project as well as the Arden, Bonaventura and Torrens base metal projects in South Australia.
This article was developed in collaboration with Future Battery Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.