Lithium and gold explorer Octava Minerals is set to light up the ASX boards this Friday with a trio of projects across WA, the world’s premier mining district. The new listing kicks off with the company’s flagship Talga lithium project just 10km north-east of ASX-listed Global Lithium Resources’ Archer deposit of 10.5 million tonnes going 1 per cent lithium oxide.
The company has already identified pegmatites in the southern area of the project and has collected a rock chip sample returning an encouraging 0.22 per cent lithium oxide from the ground.
The company has also pulled together a package of Kimberley and Mid West tenements prospective for gold, nickel and platinum group metals, or “PGMs”.
Having its hands full with potential projects has no doubt helped Octava successfully raise $6 million with its initial public offering being fully subscribed. The register will include two cornerstone industry investors New Energy Development and Southeast Mingqing Supply Chain with both holding a strategic 15 per cent interest in the company after listing.
Of the capital raised $3.47 million of it is already earmarked for exploration.
Most of these funds will be funnelled into its flagship Talga with the rest to be set aside for the company’s Kimberley and Mid West projects.
From a lithium perspective, the Pilbara is home to two of the world’s biggest deposits, Mineral Resources’ Wodgina deposit and Pilbara Minerals’ Pilgangoora. Whilst Archer is only in the chasing pack it does confirm Talga is sitting in renowned lithium territory.
Importantly it appears Global Lithium Resources’ deposit is not yet fully grown as the company is currently underway with a 60,000m RC drilling program targeting resource growth and extension.
At the start of August Global Lithium reported it had scored further lithium-bearing pegmatite intersections including 7m at 1.67 per cent lithium oxide as far as 850m outside of its existing resource outlines.
Archer was uncovered by Global Lithium in 2020.
Also in the lithium hotbed and to the immediate north of Talga sits ASX-listed Askari Metals’ Yarrie project with multiple mapped pegmatites prospective for lithium mineralisation.
Less than 5km to the west, ASX-listed Kalamazoo Resources holds court with its joint venture partner Chilean-based SQM Lithium – one of the world’s largest producers of lithium hydroxide and carbonate.
Whilst lithium may be the main focus, Octava’s tenement is also likely to come under scrutiny for gold given it contains a high-calibre of historical hits that are yet to be followed up on in addition to some notable neighbours in the broader district.
At the project’s Razorback prospect previous drilling has intersected significant gold including 16m at 2 grams per tonne gold from surface and 2m at 6.23 g/t from 28m.
Notably drill testing has only been performed across 700m of a prospective 4km strike length. Recent geophysical surveys have lit up 11 areas of interest across the prospect including six high priority targets.
The neighbours know a bit about gold, 133km to the west lies De Grey Mining’s 6.8-million-ounce Hemi gold deposit.
After the discovery of Hemi about two years ago, De Grey’s share price shot up from about 4 cents in January 2020, touching a high of about $1.60 by September the same year.
Whilst just over 30km to the south lies the newly producing Calidus Resources’ 1.5-million-ounce Warrawoona gold project.
A little closer to home and 15km to the east of Talga lies the historical Bamboo Creek gold mine where since 1889 about 779,350 tonnes of ore was reportedly processed at a grade of 8.15 grams per tonne gold.
Not content with just lithium and gold the company has secured further nickel and PGM footholds in the East Kimberley and Mid West regions.
With a diversified range of commodities and projects across WA Octava believes it is well positioned for the journey ahead.
As lithium and nickel are primary constituents in the electric vehicle battery pack it is easy to see why Octava is confident in the future demand for these metals.
Perhaps a little less well understood is the forecast environment for PGMs including the elements platinum, palladium and rhodium.
Predominantly the family of metals has been traditionally used in the automotive industry as catalytic convertors to change harmful substances in exhaust fumes into safe gases.
With the EV revolution taking off and the demise of combustion engines apparently around the corner, market bears have come to question the future demand for the metals — notwithstanding the transition to EVs from combustion engines will not be an overnight occurrence.
However, PGMs have found a use in the rapidly developing sphere of hydrogen fuel cell technology including the ever expanding green hydrogen space as a major primary source of power— an emerging field that could potentially pave way for a strong future outlook for the family of metals.
With a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work Octava Minerals plans to be around to see how this story unfolds.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
