Boadicea Resources jumped 14 per cent after winning an exploration licence for a new lithium project — and has three more lithium acquisitions in the pipeline.

Boadicea (ASX:BOA) shares rose 3c to 17c on Tuesday, before cooling to 16c at the close.

There was a flurry of lithium-related activity among ASX stocks on Tuesday, with Birimian (Mali), Anson Resources (US) and Walkabout Resources (Namibia) all sharing news about the silvery-white metal used in electric car batteries. (Details below).

Electric vehicle are now displacing electronics as the key source of demand growth for lithium batteries — illustrated by Tesla’s big launch of new roadster and truck models earlier this week.

Australia could account for more than half the global supply of lithium by 2025, Morgan Stanley estimated in its September “On The Charge” research report.

“Everyone is talking about lithium with the lithium batteries and using lithium in cars and it looks like it’s got a very big future,” Boadicea managing director Clarke Dudley told Stockhead.

“Everyone wanted graphite at one stage. That’s sort of died down a bit now, but lithium seems to have taken its place and at the moment you’ve just got to be in lithium.”

On Tuesday Boadicea expanded its portfolio with a 204 sq km lithium project called Horseshoe to its — 75km southwest of Coolgardie in the Eastern Goldfields district of Western Australia.

Horseshoe is considered prospective for lithium pegmatites. The property has not previously been explored for lithium.

Pegmatites are the primary source of lithium either as spodumene, lithiophyllite or usually from lepidolite.

Boadicea hopes to close on two more potential lithium projects in a few weeks and has a third on the horizon.

Boadicea’s share price over the past year. Source: Investing.com

Boadicea started out as a gold explorer before it acquired prime real estate right near the Nova nickel-copper mine in the Fraser Range of Western Australia, which was snapped up by Independence Group in a $1.8 billion deal in late 2015.

While the company’s key project is its Symons Hill nickel project, it is quickly expanding into lithium.

“We’re really just acquiring what we can, seeing what we can find and then we’ll sort of work out whether [lithium] becomes an equal third arm of our activities or whether it’s just another commodity,” Mr Dudley said.

Flurry of lithium activity

‘There has been a flurry of activity in the lithium space this week, with Mali-focused Birimian (ASX:BGS) revealing it has intersected a “very wide” spodumene-bearing pegmatite zone in recent drilling at its Goulamina project in Southern Mali.

The company estimated more than 117m of pegmatite in one hole drilled at the Danaya prospect. However, the hole was abandoned due to water flow issues that impacted drilling.

High grades of up to 1.95 per cent lithium have also been uncovered during drilling at the Yando prospect.

Anson Resources (ASX:ASN), meanwhile, is now fully permitted to drill its Paradox lithium project in the United States.

The aim is to define a resource, with the drilling program slated for completion in the final quarter of this year.

Walkabout Resources (ASX:WKT) has snagged its second exclusive prospecting licence in Southern Namibia, known as the Eureka project.

There is evidence of 27km of pegmatites, with recent rock sampling by others indicating grades of over 1.6 per cent.

Walkabout now has a lithium footprint covering 1500 sq km in Namibia.

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