Although early days, Jadar Lithium’s foray into lithium appears to be going well, with its share price on an upward trajectory since it relisted in late December.

Shares are up 85 per cent at 3.7c from the recent public offer price of 2c since Jadar (ASX:JDR) lit up the boards of the Australian bourse on December 29.

The Perth-based explorer, which originally began trading on the ASX in December 1994 as South East Asia Resources, underwent a restructure last year.

The company previously owned the PT PAR coking coal mine and a 95% interest in the Malala molybdenum project, both located in Indonesia.

In September last year, Jadar struck a deal to acquire five lithium-prospective exploration licences in Serbia, two of which are located near Rio Tinto’s Jadar lithium project.

The projects are considered prospective for lithium and other pegmatite hosted minerals, including jadarite — which contains both lithium and borates.

Superman, kryptonite
Superman would do well to stay away from jadarite, just to be on the safe side.

Serbia’s Jadar basin is the only place in the world where the mineral can be found, according to Rio Tinto. Incidentally, jadarite has almost the same chemical composition as the fictional “kryptonite” of Superman fame.

The key to Jadar unlocking value in its newly acquired assets lies in the aggressive development of Rio’s nearby lithium projects.

There are currently no operating jadarite mines in the world. Rio’s project is currently in the pre-feasibility stage and, according to the company’s current schedule, is not due to come into production until 2023.

However, Rio has already developed a new processing technology to extract minerals from jadarite ore. A small-scale test plant has been built to test the new technology.

Construction of the operation is slated to begin in 2020, which would also provide much-needed infrastructure.

Stockhead is seeking comment from Jadar.

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