The recently released Federal Budget has highlighted the importance of the mining and resources industry to the Australian economy with a particular focus on the critical minerals sector.
The October Budget included funding of $50.5 million over four years to establish the “Australian Critical Minerals Research and Development Hub”.
The Hub will combine expertise from the smartest guys in the room at Geoscience Australia, the CSIRO and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation who will work with Australia’s research sector and industry to address technical challenges and support international research and development collaborations.
The Government will also allocate an additional $50.1 million over three years to the “Critical Minerals Development Program” for competitive grants to support early and mid-stage critical minerals projects.
According to Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King, critical minerals including rare earths are vital components of low-emissions technologies such as batteries, electric vehicles and solar panels.
One of the most crucial commodities to the current market is lithium given its importance to the electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery sectors.
Even though a number of serious new lithium discoveries have been made in recent times in the Goldfields and the Pilbara region the South West’s massive Greenbushes mine near Bridgetown is still the most revered hard rock lithium deposit on the planet. It hosts the world’s largest known and highest-grade deposit of hard-rock lithium and staggeringly, accounts for close to 30 per cent of the global market.
Mining in the South West of WA, whilst not as prolific as other regions, is not new. According to Greenbushes operator Talison Lithium, tin mining began in the Greenbushes area in 1888 and mining of tantalum commenced in the 1940s. Even lithium, which has soared to prominence in recent times has a relatively long history at Greenbushes.
The massive Greenbushes lithium deposit, that churns out around 1.95 million tonnes of lithium spodumene concentrate every year, was first mined in 1983 with the first lithium processing plant commissioned in 1985.
Australia is the world’s largest lithium producer and according to the Federal Government, the latest figures forecast points to the value of lithium exports increasing more than 10-fold over two years to almost $14 billion in 2022-23 from $1.1 billion in 2020-21, with a continued upward trajectory.
IGO holds a 49 per cent interest in a global joint venture with Tianqi Lithium Corporation. The joint venture has a 51 per cent interest in the Greenbushes mine with the remaining 49 per cent held by US chemicals giant Albermarle.
With global demand for the battery metal surging, a number of exploration companies have pegged tenements in the region, many within shouting distance of Greenbushes in the hope of discovering the next major South West lithium deposit.
Just last month explorer Kula Gold announced plans to significantly extend and expedite ongoing lithium exploration at its Brunswick multi-mineral project in the South West.
The announcement follows the discovery of six pegmatite target zones at the site, just 45km from Greenbushes.
The company says the potentially lithium-bearing pegmatites were originally defined through a comprehensive analysis of government-derived geological data and public information from mica mines in the region.
Kula has since launched field mapping at Brunswick and collected various rock samples from the outcrops. The specimens are with an assay laboratory for detailed analysis and the company is awaiting the results.
In August geological mapping at Galan Lithium’s Greenbushes South project led to the discovery of a significant new pegmatite outcrop that runs over 500m in strike length. The mapping follows previous exploration at the site that unveiled the operation’s first pegmatite lens in a highly prospective area coined “GS11”.
The new pegmatite spans a trio of outcrops and stretches about 500m by 400m. The discovery dwarfs the initial find at GS11, which covered an area of around 200m by 40m.
Galan is ramping up its battery metals hunt at Greenbushes South and recently got its hands on the first batch of 65 geochemical soil results from a sampling program completed around the initial discovery.
The company says the exercise delivered encouraging results that ran up to 215 parts per million lithium, along with anomalous scores of pathfinder elements such as caesium and ardennite.
In June mining giant IGO Limited snapped up an interest in Venus Metals Corporation after acquiring nine million shares and securing an exploration deal at its Bridgetown Greenbushes project in the South West.
After spending $2.07 million at 23c per share, IGO will secure a 5.6 per cent stake in Venus, making it a substantial shareholder in the company.
The Bridgetown Greenbushes exploration project takes in Venus’ Greenbushes East lithium project and its Bridgetown East copper-nickel-platinum group element site.
In March, Venus identified a strong lithium anomaly in soil sampling at Bridgetown East, just 20km south-east of the Greenbushes mine site.
As part of stage 1 of the exploration agreement with Venus, IGO will earn a 51 per cent share in the Bridgetown Greenbushes project by spending $3m on exploration expenditure within 30 months of the commencement date.
By any measure the Greenbushes lithium deposit is a freak – it has both scale and grade which clocks in at over 2 per cent - a number considered to be the holy grail of lithium deposits.
Notably, Greenbushes is thought to have even produced pockets at over 3 per cent Li20 in the past.
It is hard to believe such a massive historic accumulation of lithium would be a lone outlier in the grand timeline of history and if there is another similar deposit lurking in WA’s South West, chances are WA’s mining glitterati will find it – it is just a matter of when.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
