Estrella bolsters portfolio with landmark Timor licensing approval

Estrella Resources has notched yet another Timor-Leste landmark achievement, announcing the first successful conversion of permits into exploration and evaluation licenses under the mineral-rich country’s new mining laws. 

The company’s four converted permits more than double its exploration and evaluation footprint from 121.5km² to an impressive 268.7km², unlocking prospective geology and high-grade manganese targets to be drill tested for the very first time.

The newly minted licenses will replace old reconnaissance permits, enabling Estrella to deploy ground-disturbing methods including all-important maiden drilling campaigns that are set to follow the receipt of the nation’s first mineral exploration rig later this month. 

The news comes at a time when Estrella has unearthed a surprising contender for a new mineral discovery – the presence of clean, fossil-rich limestones sitting above its manganese horizons.

It follows some eye-catching early-stage assay results throughout last year, that flagged the serious mineral rich nature of Timor Leste, formally known as East Timor.

Some rock samples tabled by Estrella showed high-grade manganese up to a serious 58.2 per cent Mn across the featured “Noni” rock formations.

Estrella says its new licenses will be valid for four years with a potential six-year extension option as part of the existing joint venture with state-owned Murak Rai Timor, who is free-carried in the project until feasibility study completion.

The northern and western extensions of the Sica-Lalena manganese trend remain the company’s core focus where significant tertiary style manganese has already been identified. Estrella is now busy hunting for substantial secondary supergene deposits akin to those at its flagship Sica and Ira Miri prospects. 

During mapping surveys Estrella’s geologists noted abundant clean limestone above its targeted Noni formation, prompting its inclusion in all four licenses. Assays revealed astonishingly high calcium carbonate levels up to 93.4 per cent, with low impurities and high industrial application potential. The proximity of these limestones to coastal ports only enhance the company’s belief in its economic viability. 

Conveniently, Estrella’s planned maiden drill testing for manganese will intersect the overlying limestone horizons, securing extra bang for the company’s buck should a bi-product scenario evolve.

Estrella Resources managing director Chris Daws said: “The positive results from early-stage exploration work on these permits allowed Estrella to demonstrate the viability of more advanced exploration activities, allowing us to move from mapping and sampling to more advanced exploration including trenching and drilling over a 4-year license term with a 6-year extension option.”

Estrella says it is wasting no time following its license conversions, with plans to test its staggeringly high-grade manganese targets with reverse circulation and diamond drilling once a rig arrives later this month.

Drilling will coincide with the end of Timor’s wet season, with environmental surveys for the untouched Ira Miri, Sica and Lalena drill targets having all been completed. 

The company says applications for environmental clearances and access tracks are being drafted for the new licenses, while mapping and limestone sampling continue.

Estrella is not only exploiting its first mover advantage in the newly “open for mining” Timor-Leste, it is also doubling down on an expected boom in manganese demand as lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) batteries used in electric vehicles move to the higher performance lithium manganese ferro phosphate (LMFP) chemistry. 

As global demand for manganese surges and limestone emerges as a low-cost, high-margin bi-product, Estrella moves closer and closer to the first ever drill test of untouched Timor-Leste’s mineral abundance just might get interesting. 

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au