Summit Minerals is the newest explorer to list on the ASX and its line-up of projects reads like someone was compiling a list of all the in-demand minerals.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that given that lithium, rare earth elements and antimony are all in demand for batteries, electric vehicle motors and other high-tech applications.

And that’s exactly what Summit Minerals (ASX:SUM) has brought to the game with the Bridgetown and Phillips Rive lithium projects, the Northern REE-lithium projects, the Stallion REE project and the Windfall antimony project.

All worthy projects that will be systematically explored with the $4.6m which the company had raised through its initial public offering of 23.05 million shares priced at 20c each.

“We are very pleased to have received this strong backing from the market and welcome all shareholders to their new company,” executive director Jonathan King said.

“The secured funds will advance exploration across our critical mineral portfolio, with the initial focus on our lithium assets.”

So just what are the projects that Summit expects to be greater than the sum of their parts?

Lithium-focused plays

First up are the Phillips River and Bridgetown projects in southern WA, which both host prospective lithium targets along strike and close to the world-class Mt Cattlin and Greenbushes lithium operations respectively.

Phillips River covers 42.6km2 of ground which is intruded by lithium-bearing pegmatites located just 20km southwest of Allkem’s Mt Cattlin lithium operations and 2.5km from Bulletin Resources’ (ASX:BNR) recent Phillips South discovery, which returned rock chips of up to 8.21% Li2O.

The project remains largely underexplored due to cover though Summit intends to correct this oversight with initial work consisting of field reconnaissance and surface geochemistry, geological mapping, and passive seismic or deep ground penetrating radar prior to drilling.

Meanwhile, Bridgetown is just 7km south of Talison’s Greenbushes operations, the world’s largest lithium mine.

Bridgetown is prospective for lithium and tin-bearing pegmatites and is adjacent to IGO’s recently announced $6m Venus Metals farm-in.

Summit plans to carry out field investigations and geochemistry along existing roads and tracks, which will be followed by geological mapping prior to preliminary scout drilling.

Multi-element exploration

Over in the Pilbara region, the Northern projects comprise three lithium and REE projects targeting both lithium-bearing pegmatites and REEs associated with carbonatites, which are known to host some of the world’s largest REE deposits.

E09/2435 is located near Dreadnought’s Yin REE discovery while lithium-bearing pegmatites have been discovered adjacent to E09/2482 at Electrostate’s Malinda Project.

The last project E45/6087 covers prospective geology between Pilgangoora and Wodgina.

Planned work includes field investigations and geochemistry before drilling is carried out.

Meanwhile, the 18km2 Stallion project covers a significant portion of a historical uranium discovery on the eastern margins of the Yilgarn Craton which also shows significant REE-enrichment throughout the host rocks.

The large 5km by 500m to 800m exploration area hosts 79 historical drill holes – most of which have REE assays.

Summit will collate the historical drill data and recover existing pulps, evaluate and remodel REE results before drilling for metallurgical samples.

The lesser known critical mineral

Last, but certainly not least on the company’s list of projects is the 240km2 Windfall antimony project in New South Wales, which includes multiple historical antimony mines.

While each of these mines hosts a walk-up drill target, one notable example is the Munga Creek mine that was last mined in 1974 and produced 1,100t of antimony at the highest grades ever recorded in Australia (63%) and gold grades to 6g/t.

The company plans to determine access before carrying out field mapping and soil geochemistry. This will be followed by geophysics and drilling.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Summit 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.

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