Future Battery Minerals divests Nevada Lithium holding to focus on core Coolgardie assets

Future Battery Minerals (ASX: FBM) has opted to divest its 80% shareholding in Nevada Lithium Corp to emerging US clean energy company Austroid, allowing it to focus on its core assets in Western Australia’s goldfields region.

Nevada Lithium holds the rights to the project of the same name, where an initial mineral resource estimate was unveiled in April totalling 1.5 billion tonnes at 783 parts per million lithium for 6.2Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent.

The total consideration for the divestment will be $4 million in cash, of which $50,000 has already been paid by Austroid as a non-refundable deposit.

Local lithium focus

The disposal of the non-core Nevada project will allow Future to concentrate on its wholly-owned Kangaroo Hills and 85%-owned Miriam lithium developments in WA.

The combined tenure stretches 11 kilometres over a key interpreted lithium trend in the Coolgardie greenstone belt, presenting Future with a solid opportunity in the early stages of assessment.

Exploration to date at Kangaroo Hills has demonstrated the presence of a near-surface, shallow-dipping, high-grade deposit at the Big Red discovery, where the mineralisation remains thick and open at relatively shallow depths.

Miriam pegmatites

The Miriam project, located 3.5km north of Big Red, was acquired in March from Corazon Mining (ASX: CZN) and hosts high-grade spodumene-bearing pegmatites with rock chip samples up to 1.85% lithium oxide.

Geochemical soil sampling previously conducted by Corazon revealed a primary target of approximately 1.6km in strike, with a second trend spanning approximately 600m.

Future said the absence of historic lithium drilling at Miriam provides a significant opportunity for future exploration success.

‘Compelling opportunity’

Future Battery Minerals managing director Nicholas Rathjen said the company would use funds from the divestment to rapidly advance its assets in WA.

“Our Coolgardie lithium projects present a compelling opportunity […] in close proximity to world-class infrastructure and operating process plants,” he said.

“We believe the sheer upside prospectivity of Kangaroo Hills and Miriam, coupled with the exploration, development and operating track record of our Australian-based team, highlights the scale of the opportunity before us.”

Well-funded

Future will have a cash balance of around $8.7m upon completion of the divestment, keeping it well-funded for the immediate future.

“The sale of a non-core asset is an effective and efficient capital management tool, delivering a significant increase in cash without diluting shareholders,” Mr Rathjen explained.

“The proceeds from this deal will provide a substantial runway for the targeted and efficient exploration of our Coolgardie assets over the next couple of years, as well as a robust position from which to explore new business development opportunities.”