Javelin eyes slice of lithium and rare earths pie

Javelin Minerals is gearing up to pursue the lithium and rare earths potential at its Mt Ida-Ida Valley project 60km west of Leonora in WA with 48 priority targets already identified. Exploration activities are slated to commence in mid-November with drilling also on the agenda for the first half of 2023.

The company’s haul of targets were identified from recently acquired aeromagnetic and radiometric data in a region that is under the microscope of other juniors for its multi-element mineralisation potential.

The Mt Ida-Ida Valley project is an amalgamation of 18 exploration licenses and applications covering an expansive 2210 square kilometres in WA’s prolific Goldfields region. The majority of the project is covered by soils, with less than 5 per cent of the visible basement exposed. The explorer says it has observed numerous outcropping pegmatites across three of its tenements that warrant further follow up. Notably, one of the tenements is contiguous with ASX-listed Red Dirt Metals’ Mt Ida lithium project where a high-grade lithium discovery was made in late 2021. The breakthrough sparked the emergence of what is now one of the country’s fastest emerging lithium provinces.

Zenith Minerals, St George Mining and even Gina Reinhart’s Hancock Prospecting have interests in the area. St George recently reported rock chips going as high as 2.7 per cent lithium oxide at its Mt Alexander project, just 17km west of one of Javelin’s newly identified pegmatite-bearing tenements.

Javelin Minerals Executive Director, Matthew Blake said: “Whilst it’s early days for our new Javelin Mt Ida‐Ida Valley project…… we have some excellent geophysical targets to follow up lithium, REE and precious and base metals exploration over the coming month.”

Javelin plans to wrap up an ongoing ‘orientation’ soil sampling program ahead of its major exploration push set to kick off in November. The orientation program will identify the best soil sampling method ahead of the geochemical work.

Notably, Javelin has also collected a grab bag of samples across kimberlites for their rare earths potential. The kimberlites were discovered in 1990’s by De Beers in its search for diamonds, however they were not examined for rare earths.

With over two-thirds of its preliminary sampling program complete and submitted to the lab, Javelin anticipates the return of its results in late December or January 2023.

Historical soil sampling across the broader Leonora area has returned up to 30 parts per million lithium within the company’s ground. Whilst the past results are encouraging, the ball is now squarely in Javelin’s court and the samples already submitted to the lab will no doubt be highly anticipated by the market.

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