Tiger Tasman Minerals seeks ASX listing to advance battery metal and industrial mineral projects

Australian explorer and developer, Tiger Tasman Minerals has an extensive exploration program lined up for its five metals and industrial minerals projects following its planned ASX debut at the end of this month.

The company is especially hopeful that funds from its initial public offering (IPO) will enable it to advance a feasibility study at its flagship Iron Skarn polymetallic project in North Queensland.

It has also assembled rights to acquire 100% interests in Western Australian projects targeting battery and precious metals including lithium, copper, nickel, manganese, zinc, silver and gold.

Tiger Tasman is seeking to raise between $5.1 million and $8 million through the issue of 25.5 million to 40 million shares priced at $0.20 per share. Upon listing, the company is anticipated to have an indicative market capitalisation of $9.57 million to $12.47 million (undiluted).

The company’s IPO launched last month and is scheduled to close in October. It expects to start trading on the ASX under the ticker code ‘T1G’.

ESG focus and battery metals demand

In a roadshow presentation, Tiger Tasman described its focus on multi-commodity metals essential to electrification and decarbonisation as its point of difference. It has an environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) centric business strategy targeting carbon-neutral status for its operations and a goal of joining the United Nations Global Compact.

The company presented data forecasting rapid growth in the battery market each year as the world continues to transition to electric vehicles, renewable energy generation and energy storage. It also pointed to a 100,000-times increase in demand for raw materials with charging station storage batteries containing more than 600kg of copper alone.

In the chairman’s letter of the prospectus, Tiger Tasman non-executive chairman Richard Beazley said demand for the minerals and metals the company is focusing its exploration efforts on is expected to be “strong” as they are essential to the electrification and decarbonisation of the global economy.

“The company has brought together a board and exploration team with a proven track record and diverse range of skills in the resources industry of Australia and abroad,” he added.

“This uniquely qualified team offers experience and success across the realms of exploration, development, finance and acquisitions and is poised to aggressively explore and develop the projects.”

Iron Skarn pre-development project

Tiger Tasman’s flagship pre-development Iron Skarn polymetallic project comprises one granted exploration permit located 40km from Townsville in the Barringha region of Queensland.

The 12sq km tenement is considered prospective for base metals and hosts the Iron Glen polymetallic skarn deposit, which has an existing JORC 2012 inferred mineral resource estimate of 1.92 million tonnes at 29.3% iron, and 2.9Mt at 13.1 grams per tonne silver (outside of the magnetite skarn).

Significant exploration upside has been identified at the Lead Belly prospect, which Tiger Tasman believes could potentially expand the resource inventory.

Up to $1.03 million of the IPO funds (at maximum subscription) have been allocated to undertaking a feasibility study at the Iron Skarn project in the first two years following the company’s ASX listing.

Further exploration planned for the project includes geochemical studies and mapping of Lead Belly, as well as tenement compliance exploration.

Copper Canyon project

Another exploration priority for Tiger Tasman is the underexplored Copper Canyon copper-gold project, made up of 502 sq km under application in WA’s Paterson Province. It is regarded as a tier one exploration destination with neighbours including major companies such as Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO), Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM) and Cyprium Metals (ASX: CYM).

More than $800,000 of the IPO funds has been earmarked for the Copper Canyon project with planned exploration to include mapping, surface geochemical sampling, heritage surveys, induced polarisation (IP) survey and data processing, as well as drilling of targets identified from the surveying.

Tiger Tasman considered the project “very favourable” in prospectivity, with two anomalies identified on the eastern and western boundaries of the tenement, as well as the number of tier one operating mines and discoveries within a 60km radius of the project (Nifty, Telfer, Winu, Havieron).

Other WA Exploration projects

Additionally, Tiger Tasman also plans to use a portion of its IPO funds for exploration at its three other early-stage projects in WA including detailed mapping, surface geochemical sampling, heritage surveys, IP survey and data processing, and planned drilling and assays in the first 12 months from IPO.

These projects include Fraser Range, located in WA’s Yilgarn Province about 60km from IGO’s (ASX: IGO) Nova nickel mine. At Fraser Range, Tiger Tasman is targeting lithium, nickel, copper and zinc.

Recent exploration work has mapped the presence of pegmatites and samples are awaiting assay to confirm lithium mineralisation.

The project is 50Km from the Bald Hill lithium mine and Buldania lithium discovery in what is regarded as the “lithium belt” in WA.

Tiger Tasman’s Mt Minnie project is prospective for high-grade manganese in the Ashburton region where a 4km strike at surface is returning grades exceeding 40% manganese.

The company has mapped the targets and completed sampling at the project.

Over at the Crater project, Tiger Tasman is targeting copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold in the Earaheedy Basin.