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FBM adds gold potential as it grows Eastern Goldfields footprint

FBM believes its new territory offers lithium and gold growth with the potential for large-scale discoveries. Pic: Getty Images

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  • FBM stakes and submits for 45km2 of new Goldfields territory
  • Plans laid for quickfire evaluation of gold-lithium discovery potential near existing assets
  • Corporate lithium interest shows enthusiasm for long-term outlook remains in tact

 

Special Report: Future Battery Minerals has further expanded its Eastern Goldfields territory with multiple tenement applications close by its Coolgardie lithium collection.

Future Battery Minerals (ASX:FBM)  staked and submitted applications to WA’s Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety for an exploration lease and a pair of prospecting leases to add another 45km2 of strategic landholdings to its Goldfields portfolio.

FBM managing director and CEO Nick Rathjen said the applications further expanded its Goldfields footprint and provide more opportunities for provincial lithium and gold.

“We will rapidly evaluate lithium and gold prospectivity of these new tenements, with the aim of defining high-priority targets for drill testing,” Rathjen said.

“We also have been building on our previous new tenement applications in August 2024, with a detailed evaluation of historical data combined with recently completed groundworks, which has confirmed excellent preliminary gold discovery potential at the underexplored Kal North tenement, which warrants further investigation.”

Rathjen added that after the $4m cash sale of its non-core Nevada lithium project, the company was exceptionally well funded to advance all planned exploration and evaluation over the world-class Goldfields over the next 18 to 24 months.

“In addition to the gold and lithium exploration programs, our focus on business development activities has led to an increase of presented opportunities,” he said.

“To date, several early-stage and advanced exploration targets have been evaluated, with initial assessments and due diligence now underway.”

 

Map of the new tenement applications in proximity to its own assets and nearby gold projects. Pic: FBM

 

Golden opportunity

FBM still has battery metals on the mind, but its latest applications open the door to add high-grade gold prospects to diversify its portfolio.

That’s a good shout with gold at US$2750/oz and many analyst indicating they think it’s trending to go higher still.

Prospecting applications P15/6924 and P15/6925 cover a 2km2 area directly east of Horizon Minerals’ (ASX:HRZ) 466,000oz for 2.4g/t Burbanks mine, once one of the top producers in the WA’s Goldfields in gold rush times.

Despite its proximity just 2km from the underground development, the only drilling completed on the area comprised of non-targeted wide spaced aircore close to 30 years ago. But surface gold anomalism was encountered by owner Barra Resources in 2007, with drilling having previously hit low order mineralised zones such as 4m at 0.31g/t from 56m.

Its proximity to FBM’s existing Miriam and Kangaroo Hills projects demonstrates its potential for sub-surface lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites as well.

An initial review of the ground’s gold potential will be completed with a comprehensive review of available magnetic geophysics in Q1 2025

The same work will be undertaken, along with surface mapping and sampling, at exploration lease application E15/2109, a large 43km2 area 6km south of Kangaroo Hills, call Nepean South.

There’s been limited gold exploration to date, with FBM to target a 3.3km extension of the area’s greenstone unit, which is short on public domain geochemical and drill hole data.

 

Keeping busy

It’s impossible to ignore the obvious – the lithium market hasn’t been firing since mid-2023, with prices for Aussie spodumene falling from spot rates of over US$8000/t at their peak to around US$900/t today.

That’s led to pullbacks from producers and a sharp drop in cash spent on exploration for the next major pegmatite discovery.

But the market continues to grow faster than almost any other on the demand side, delivering huge advantages to those companies prepared to remain steadfast in their convictions and invest during the downturn.

FBM was one of the companies who kept busy during the downturn, confident its Kangaroo Hills and Miriam lithium projects in Coolgardie cover a key interpreted lithium trend and an early belt-scale opportunity.

And with cash in the bank to keep going, it appears to be doing exactly that, with an initial ground check of its new prospects set to kick off in this first quarter.

A preliminary review of its Kal North project has also shown strong gold discovery potential from surface anomalism, and FBM also has drilling on promising pegmatite targets at Miriam in its near-term sights.

 

 

 

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.

Categories: Mining

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