Askari Metals has expanded its lithium foothold in WA’s Pilbara region by entering a binding agreement to acquire all of the shares in private company, Greenstone Lithium, in exchange for an upfront consideration of $250,000 in cash and shares. The 65-square-kilometre project is considered prospective for lithium, tin and tantalum mineralisation and is comprised of one granted tenement and one tenement application.
Terms of the deal also include three milestone payments and a net smelter royalty of one per cent on all minerals produced from the ground. After the granting of the second tenement, Askari will hand over another $100,000 in cash and $300,000 in shares. In its final transaction, the vendor will reap a further $1.5m in shares providing Askari has success with the drill bit and tables a sizeable resource.
Hillside is located in the ‘Tambourah Lithium District’ along strike and adjacent to ASX-listed Eastern Resources’ Trigg Hill and East Curlew prospects that are currently being explored for lithium. The neighbouring exploration company has identified and drilled extensive pegmatites in its ground that can be traced along strike to extend into Hillside, according to Askari. So far, Eastern Resources has collected rock chip samples going up to 2.28 per cent lithium oxide and eagerly awaits the assays from its 32-hole drilling program that intercepted pegmatites in 30 holes.
Similarly, 4km to the south-east of Hillside lies ASX-listed Riversgold’s Tambourah project and ASX-listed Trek Metals’ Tambourah North project. Just this week Trek Metals announced it had encountered spodumene in rock samples with assays as high as 3.07 per cent lithium oxide.
Askari Metals Executive Director, Gino D’Anna said: “The Hillside Lithium Project completes the Company’s aggressive acquisition strategy in the eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia….This area is seeing a lot of dedicated lithium exploration and is a hive of activity. We are pleased that we can now be a part of that as well.”
As part of Askari’s due diligence evaluation of the project, the company got its boots on the ground and mapped pegmatite exposures across the project area. In follow-up work, it plans to continue its mapping efforts close to Eastern Resources’ project areas in addition to rock chip sampling of outcropping pegmatites to build a surface mineralisation model.
The company’s latest acquisition follows a strategic partnership formed in late October with Shanghai-listed lithium-heavyweight Zhejiang Kanglongda Special Protection Technology. The new partner has a market cap of nearly US$1 billion and also holds a controlling interest of 51 per cent in Jiangxi Tiancheng Lithium Industry that specialises in extracting lithium sulphate solution. Zhejiang Kanglongda will assist the company with lithium chemical downstream processing techniques and opportunities in addition to providing access to capital for future development.
As part of the alliance should Askari reach the mining stage its Chinese partner will be provided with a preferred offtake position at market prices. Askari’s latest lithium land grab and partnership agreement is a continuation of its battery metals strategy that has seen the company acquire five other lithium projects in 2022 alone.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
