Juno charges up Mt Ida lithium growth with $3.6m entitlement offer

In the latest good news for Juno Minerals investors, the emerging lithium and iron ore play has launched a one for three entitlement offer of up to $3.6m.

The announcement follows last week’s news of infill soil sampling results that are highly encouraging for lithium prospectivity south of Juno Minerals’ (ASX:JNO) Mount Ida Magnetite Project. The project is located in Western Australia’s prolific Yilgarn region, an emerging hot spot for the hotly sought after battery metal.

Juno’s share price rallied as much as 133% to a new 52-week high of 14c last week on the back of the discovery of the two significant, well-defined lithium-caesium-rubidium-beryllium soil anomalies.

The exploration program showed that the pathfinder metals associated with spodumene-bearing pegmatites are all enriched within the well-defined anomalies and indicate a “fertile” system. Each anomaly is more than a kilometre long and up to 500m wide, with the southern anomaly open to further exploration.

Spodumene is the most widely exploited mineral source of lithium because of its high lithium content.

Cashing up to accelerate exploration and development

Funds from the entitlement offer will provide Juno with the financial muscle to expand its exploration activities at Mount Ida while also advancing its 5.9-million-tonne Mount Mason DSO hematite project only about 12km northwest of Mount Ida.

For existing eligible shareholders, the offer will enable them to top up their stake in the company by applying for one new share for every three they hold at a price of 8c – a 27% discount to the closing price of Juno shares last Thursday – and there is no minimum subscription.

GBA Capital is lead manager of the offer and any shares not taken up as part of the offer may be placed by the firm to new investors, in consultation with Juno.

Yilgarn’s rich pickings

Only about 400km east of Perth, the Yilgarn has become a happy hunting ground for miners looking for the next big iron ore province after the Pilbara, including Australia’s richest person and chair of Hancock Prospecting, Gina Rinehart.

But it’s also getting attention for its rare metal pegmatites – and the M&A activity is heating up.

Hancock Prospecting partnered last year with Legacy Iron Ore (ASX:LCY) and Hawthorn Resources (ASX:HAW) on its Mt Bevan magnetite project. Now the trio has built upon that partnership to include lithium and nickel exploration close to Juno’s projects.

And as Juno released its results last week, Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) raised its stake to 17.44% in Delta Lithium’s (ASX:DLI) Mt Ida ground and installed its boss Chris Ellison as non-executive chairman.

It was Delta’s success at its nearby Mt Ida lithium project that prompted Juno to further consider a desktop review for lithium prospectivity on its own ground. This was followed by geological mapping on Juno tenements completed by respected lithium expert Dr Mike Grigson, who has mapped lithium projects including Pilbara Minerals’ (ASX:PLS) globally significant Pilgangoora.

Juno Mineral’s Managing Director Greg Durack said after last week’s results from Mount Ida: “This presents a fantastic opportunity in an emerging region for lithium and are we looking forward to drilling this lithium prospect as soon as possible.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Juno 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.