Venus Metals sells Nardoo Hill lithium-tantalum block to eMetals
Defocused shot of two businesspeople shaking hands in an office
Gold and battery metals explorer Venus Metals Corporation (ASX: VMC) has sold the Western Australian tenement containing its Nardoo Hill lithium-tantalum project to recently relisted eMetals (ASX: EMT) in a deal worth $365,000.
Under a binding sale and purchase term sheet, eMetals will acquire 100% of tenement E09/2156 by paying $15,000 in cash and issuing 25 million eMetals shares to Venus at $0.014 eacg, an amount equivalent to $350,000 and about 6% of eMetals’ total shares.
In addition, eMetals has agreed to pay Venus a cash royalty of $0.50 per tonne of future ore extracted within the tenement.
Known as Corizon with the ticker code of CIZ before its name change and relisting in January, eMetals owns and has been exploring on the adjacent Nardoo Well tenement in WA’s Gascoyne mineral province.
eMetals director Mathew Walker said the acquisition of this adjoining tenement would complement the company’s existing project and “may be readily integrated into the scheduled work program”.
“The acquisition provides structural geological continuity and near-term drill targets for the company to test,” he said.
Nardoo Hill prospectivity
The Nardoo Hill project overlies the historical Nardoo Hill and Morrissey Hill workings, in a pegmatite-intruded terrain that hosts tantalum-lithium-niobium mineralisation.
The tenement had been explored since the 1970s mostly for tantalum and niobium.
Exploration by Venus comprised field mapping and rock chip sampling, focusing on a 4sq km area centred on the Nardoo Hill prospect in the north of the block.
Previous sampling at the prospect has returned high-grade assays with up to 16% tantalum pentoxide, 61.2% niobium pentoxide and up to 0.27% lithium peroxide.
eMetals engaged geological consultants Gneiss Results, which confirmed during a site visit the presence of tantalum-niobium and beryllium mineralisation at surface.
The firm also identified the location of historical reverse circulation drilling, which was conducted by Border Gold in 1998 and did not return appreciable tantalum-niobium mineralisation.
According to eMetals, Gneiss suggested that drilling may have been oriented incorrectly to test the mineralisation.
eMetals plans to compile historical exploration reports and undertake surface sampling and mapping. It has also started planning for a drill test of the Nardoo Hill pegmatite.
Mr Walker said planned drilling activities are expected to be announced to the market in the next two weeks.