Octava Minerals will become the sole owner of the prospective 202-square-kilometre Talga lithium project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region after signing a deal to buy the remaining 30 per cent interest from its partner First Au.
The deal will see Octava purchase First Au’s entire project holdings – including a 20 per cent free-carried interest – for $200,000, 1.2 million fully-paid ordinary shares and a net smelter royalty of 0.75 per cent.
Octava and First Au had previously entered into a farm-in and joint-venture agreement where the former could earn up to an 80 per cent interest in the relevant tenements by spending up to $900,000 over a three-year period. First Au would retain a 20 per cent free-carried interest up until a decision to mine.
But Octava will now hold the complete rights to the Talga project, which it says is prospective for lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT)-type pegmatites and for gold.
Octava Minerals’ managing director Bevan Wakelam said: ”We are pleased to secure 100% of the Talga Project in a sought-after region for lithium exploration in the Pilbara. There is highly prospective geology at Talga that has already provided initial indications of the potential for discovery. We will continue to actively conduct detailed exploration programs over the project area.”
The Talga project is about 30km to the north-west of the town of Marble Bar and about 10km north of Global Lithium’s Archer lithium deposit, which has a mineral resource of 18 million tonnes at 1 per cent lithium oxide.
The lithium mineralisation at Archer is hosted within spodumene-bearing pegmatite intrusives. Exceptional drilling results include 28m at 1.51per cent lithium oxide and 46 parts per million tantalum pentoxide from 69m and 9m at 1.11per cent lithium oxide and 42ppm tantalum pentoxide from 108m.
Octava says Talga occupies a similar geological setting to that seen at Archer, margining the Mt Edgar Batholith and sitting proximal to the Mooyella Monzagranite and other late-stage granite intrusions. The intrusions are considered as the source for the region’s lithium pegmatite mineralisation.
The company’s exploration to date within Talga has identified several outcropping pegmatites around its Pinnacle Well and Nimerry prospects in rock adjacent to greenstone-granite contacts.
Earlier this year, Octava completed 725m of reconnaissance reverse-circulation (RC) drilling around its Pinnacle Well prospect, with notable intersections of 4m at 667ppm lithium oxide from 16m and 5m at 429ppm lithium oxide from 60m, including 1m at 594ppm lithium oxide from 64m.
Management says a soil-sampling program covering the priority target areas identified in a hyperspectral survey last month is underway, with the objective of progressing to drill targets.
It says Talga also holds gold potential in the same mineralised Archean greenstone stratigraphy and structure as Calidus Resources’ Warrawoona gold discovery about 50km to the south, which boasts a resource of 43 million tonnes at 1.2 grams per tonne gold for 1.66 million ounces.
Octava’s Razorback gold prospect at Talga has recorded several significant gold drill intersections including 16m at 1.99g/t from surface, 5m at 2.23g/t from 24m, 8m at 1.57g/t from 50m, 13m at 1.79g/t from 42m, 4m at 4.69g/t from 4m, 2m at 6.23g/t from 28m, 5m at 1.63g/t from 2m and 9m at 1.12g/t from 62m. The company says Razorback has only been drill-tested through 700m of an interpreted strike of about 4km, leaving plenty of potential for future drilling campaigns.
The ASX market clearly backed Octava’s commitment to Talga today, giving the company’s share price an intraday trading boost of more than 36 per cent as the company now waits for the upcoming results of its soil sampling.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Andrew Duffy
