Commodities, Exploration/Development, Lithium, News

MinRes hunts for lithium at Norseman

MinRes

Mineral Resources (MinRes) has entered into an agreement with Pantoro and Tulla Resources to explore for and develop lithium deposits at the Norseman gold project in Western Australia.

As part of the earn-in, MinRes will be required to spend an initial $500,000 on lithium exploration in the first six months of the deal. The company will then be required to spend a further $2.5 million within 18 months.

MinRes must then complete a feasibility study of the project within the first 24 months to earn a 25 per cent interest in any lithium rights at Norseman. MinRes must define a JORC-compliant resource as part of this.

The Tier 1 miner will then have three months to make a final investment decision as to whether to proceed with construction at the project.

To increase its ownership to 65 per cent, MinRes will be required to fund the lithium project until first production.

Either jointly or independently, Pantoro and Tulla reserve the right to buy back in and increase their ownership in the project to a combined 49.9 per cent.

Pantoro managing director Paul Cmrlec said having the involvement of a major mining company like MinRes bodes well for Norseman.

“This new partnership is an outstanding outcome for Pantoro to maximise the value of a key mineral asset at Norseman. The agreement allows us to progress without any distraction from our core business of gold development and mining, while maximising value for our shareholders,” he said.

“Pantoro has every confidence that Mineral Resources will ensure the successful development of the lithium assets. We look forward to rapidly generating drilling results from the highly prospective Buldania tenements.”

The Buldania prospect lies at the southern end of the Norseman-Wiluna belt, along strike of Liontown Resources’ Anna lithium deposit within its Buldania project.

Pantoro has conducted rock chip sampling centred on outcropping spodumene-bearing pegmatites at Buldania.

The joint venture aims to commence drilling as soon as possible.

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