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High-Tech Metals
Overview
High-Tech Metals Limited (ASX:HTM) is an exploration and development mining company focusing on its Canadian cobalt asset in the Kenora Mining District. The company’s Werner Lake project has received no previous modern exploration, creating blue-sky potential as High-Tech leverages new technologies and techniques. Additionally, High-Tech Metals is a well-structured entity from a capital perspective, with a highly experienced team of experts leading the company towards its goals. Toby Hughes was appointed to lead the exploration team and improve the value of the Werner Lake project.
Cobalt is widely used in various applications due to its unique high-temperature and magnetic properties. Historically, cobalt has been used in jet turbines, electroplating and alloyed with nickel to make powerful magnets. Now, cobalt demand is skyrocketing as electric vehicles (EVs) increasingly take a big chunk of the market. EVs are projected to consume 320 kilotons of cobalt by 2030, about 84 percent of the total cobalt demand.
The Werner Lake project is near the Ontario-Manitoba border and is on the Werner Lake Geological Belt, known for hosting cobalt-copper and base metal deposits. The region has undergone continual exploration and production since cobalt was discovered in 1921.
Canada has the sixth largest cobalt reserves globally and both Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador produce more than 1,000 metric tonnes of cobalt annually. In addition, Canada hosts many of the world’s top mining jurisdictions due to its mining-friendly policies, which will allow High-Tech Metals to streamline exploration and move towards production.
High-Tech’s project was explored in the 1930s and 1940s, then was taken into production in the 1990s. Results from historical exploration and production informed the project’s current JORC-compliant resource estimate of 720,000 pounds (lbs) at 0.52 percent cobalt. While encouraging, the team also believes there is a significant exploration of upside potential by leveraging modern tools and techniques.
High-Tech Metals has taken steps to expand its portfolio, securing an agreement to acquire the Norpax Deposit and an option to purchase the Reynar Lake Project, located in Ontario, Canada. The projects are directly west and adjoin the company’s Werner Lake Project The Norpax Nickel Sulphide Deposit has a historical non-JORC compliant resource of 1.01 million tonnes of 1.2 percent nickel and 0.5 percent copper. The Reynar Lake Project is highly prospective for nickel, copper and cobalt which could potentially provide HTM with additional landholding and increase its cobalt resource and explore for additional nickel sulphide mineralisation.
Company Highlights
- High-Tech Metals is an exploration and development mining company exploring its underexplored cobalt asset in Canada.
- The company is a well-structured entity from a capital perspective, with the right management team in place to realize the potential of its assets.
- The Werner Lake Cobalt Project has seen some historical exploration and production but has not been explored with modern exploration techniques and technologies, creating upside potential for additional discoveries.
- Renowned geologist Toby Hughes leads the exploration team.
- Cobalt is currently used throughout a wide range of applications, and the growth of renewable technologies will continually drive up demand for the metal.
- The Werner Lake project is located on the Ontario-Manitoba border in a prolific mining district with an existing road network to facilitate future transportation.
- The company’s asset has a current JORC-compliant resource estimate of 720,000 lbs of ore at 0.52 percent cobalt.
- An experienced management team leads the company towards fully exploring its cobalt asset.
Key Project
Werner Lake Cobalt Project
The company’s cobalt project sits on the Ontario-Manitoba border in the Kenora Mining District, a region known for cobalt, copper and other base metals. The Werner Lake project has some historical exploration and production but has not received any exploration using modern technologies and techniques. High-Tech Metals is currently preparing for its initial geophysics exploration campaign.
Project Highlights:
- Encouraging Mineral Resource Estimate: The Werner Lake project has a current JORC-compliant resource estimate of 720,000 lbs at 0.52 percent cobalt. This optimistic estimate demonstrates the presence of cobalt, yet the exploration team believes there is tremendous potential to expand known deposits.
- Favorable Geological Formations: The Werner Lake Geological Belt, where the company's project is located, hosts numerous cobalt-copper and base metal showings. Additionally, the region contains multiple past-producing mines, which indicates its potential.
- Exploration Expertise: Renowned exploration expert Toby Hughes leads the exploration team. High-Tech Metals hopes to expand known deposits to improve the value of its asset.
- Significant Assay Results from Summer Sampling Program: High-Tech Metals collected approximately 209 rock samples which returned high-grade nickel sulphide (greater than 1 percent Ni) rock chips, which have predominantly been explored for cobalt and copper, also returned high-grade samples including 6.22 percent copper and >1 percent cobalt.
Management Team
Charles Thomas - Non-executive Chairman
Charles Thomas is an executive director and founding partner of GTT Ventures a leading boutique corporate advisory firm based in Australia. Thomas holds a Bachelor of Commerce from UWA majoring in corporate finance. Thomas has worked in the financial service industry for more than 17 years and has extensive experience in capital markets as well as the structuring of corporate transactions. Thomas has significant experience sitting on numerous ASX boards spanning the mining, resources and technology space. Thomas is currently non-executive director of Chase Mining Corporation (ASX:CML), non-executive chairman of Viking Mines Ltd (ASX.VKA) and executive chairman of Marquee Resources Limited (ASX:MQR).
Sonu Cheema - Executive Director
Sonu Cheema is a director at Cicero Group Pty Ltd and has over 12 years of experience working with public and private companies in Australia and abroad. Roles and responsibilities include financial control, preparation of statutory financial reporting, investor relations, initial public offers (IPO), reverse takeovers (RTO), management of capital raising activities, project management and audit management. Cheema currently serves as a non-executive director and company secretary for Avira Resources (ASX:AVW) and Austin Metals (ASX:AYT).
Quinton Meyers - Non-executive Director & Company Secretary
Quinton Meyers has over six years of experience working in the equities markets in the capacity of a stockbroker, company secretary and accountant for multiple ASX-listed companies gaining exposure to the resource, oil and gas and technology sectors. During this time, Meyers has worked on multiple initial public offers, reverse takeovers, equity capital markets transactions, while developing his knowledge of the ASX Listing Rules and Corporations Act.
Meyers holds a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting and finance from Curtin University, a Graduate Diploma in financial planning and is a member of the Chartered Accountants Australian & New Zealand.
Toby Hughes - Leader of Exploration
Toby Hughes is a professional geologist having worked in mineral exploration for more than 40 years, with experience in orogenic and epithermal systems, volcanogenic massive sulphides, and Cu-Ni-Co. He has worked for several years on and around the Werner Lake deposit, with additional experience in cobalt exploration within the Bear Magmatic Province, NT, Cobalt, ON and China. As a consultant, he has held senior positions with junior and senior mining companies across Canada, Argentina, China, Columbia, Ghana, Guyana, Mongolia, Peru, Venezuela, and the USA exploring for precious, base metal, industrial minerals and diamonds. Hughes is a graduate of The University of Dundee, Scotland (Honours B.Sc. Geology) and a registered professional geoscientist in Ontario.
Maiden Mukinbudin Quartz Processing Testwork Achieves Premium HPQ Product
Highlights
- Exceptional Processing Testwork results received from North Carolina State University’s Mineral Research Laboratory (NCSU-MRL), an industry leading independent High Purity Ǫuartz lab.
- Ǫuartz sample T1-C, a maiden sample from the Mukinbudin Project, achieved >99.991% SiO2 from a simple processing flow sheet that included attrition, flotation and magnetic separation treatment, opening opportunities for early stage offtake.
- All samples sent to NCSU-MRL, from both Pippingarra and Mukinbudin demonstrated outstanding purity levels, confirming the exciting potential of IND’s quartz deposits and their suitability for high-end applications.
- In parallel with the numerous ongoing offtake discussions and ongoing end customer testing, IND now plans to undertake further comprehensive independent testwork at leading industrial minerals consultancy ANZAPLAN in Germany to further assist in finalising product offtake.
IND is exploring for High Purity Ǫuartz (“HPǪ”) at several of its projects in Western Australia, and the testwork was completed on samples from IND’s Pippingarra Ǫuarry Project and Mukinbudin Ǫuartz/Feldspar Project.
Jeff Sweet, Managing Director of Industrial Minerals, commented:
“We are extremely encouraged by achieving +99.99% SiO2 purity through to the acid leaching stage of our process testwork. These results are incredibly promising for our HPǪ production. With calcination and hot chlorination stages yet to be tested, we anticipate even greater purity levels can be achieved. This progress underscores our confidence in achieving premium quality in our final product.
“The Mukinbudin quartz was purified to 99.991% SiO2 through magnetic separation and flotation process work alone. This simple flowsheet will allow IND to pursue early-stage offtake opportunities into a broader range of HPǪ applications.
“Given the large price differential at the premium end of the HPǪ market as illustrated in Figure 1, IND’s ultimate goal is to now test the maximum purity level achievable across the Company’s quartz projects with the aim to be a recognised long term supplier of quality HPǪ products.”
Figure 1: High Purity Ǫuartz raw ore pricing CIF China based on industry feedback2
Processing Testwork Results
North Carolina State University’s Minerals Research Laboratory is a world leader in research, development and implementation of mineral processing techniques. The main focus of NCSU- MRL’s research is the beneficiation of industrial minerals.
Ǫuartz Ore Samples
IND sent three 20kg quartz ore samples to NCSU-MRL for the purpose of assessing the potential to use as feedstock for the production of High Purity Ǫuartz. Test samples T1_A and T1-B were sourced from IND’s Pippingarra Ǫuarry Project (Figure 2) and test sample T1_C was sourced from the Mukinbudin Project (Figure 3).
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Industrial Minerals Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Jeffreys Find Gold Mine Toll Milling of 150,000 Tonnes Commenced, Second 2024 Campaign
HIGHLIGHTS
- Processing of 150,000 tonnes commenced at Greenfields Mill.
- 75,600 tonnes on ROM Pad at Greenfields as of 23 July 2024.
- Second campaign expected to finish early September 2024.
- On target to process 300,000 tonnes at Greenfields Mill in 2024/2025.
- BML expects to mine well in excess of 300,000 tonnes in 2024/2025.
- First cash distributions to Auric this quarter.
MANAGEMENT COMMENT
Managing Director, Mark English, said: “We have the good fortune of pouring gold just as the price firms. It happened last year when the price went to $3,000 an ounce, this year it’s around $3,600 an ounce.
“The ever increasing gold price will result in Auric and our joint venture partner generating cash surpluses well in excess of what we had budgeted and anticipated.
“150,000 tonnes is a sizeable parcel of ore for this campaign. While it will take six weeks or so to mill, we expect it to generate well in excess of $25 million through gold sales for the joint venture.
“The mill contract is to process 300,000 tonnes in 2024. This 150,000 tonnes parcel will be the largest for Stage 2 of mining of Jeffreys Find. That leaves an additional 120,000 tonnes for milling at Greenfields towards the end of 2024.
“Jeffreys Find will be a substantial cash producer for Auric in 2024. We are on target to receive our first distribution within about a month.” said Mr English.
The Jeffreys Find Pit as of 16 July 2024
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Auric Mining, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Viani - Low Sulphidation Epithermal Gold Project License Renewed
Highlights
- MRD notified Alice Queen on Friday 19 July 2024 via email that its Viani license (SPL1513) has been renewed for a further three years with effect from Wednesday 3 July 2024.
- Viani, located on the Pacific Rim of Fire on Vanua Levu in Fiji, covers an area greater than 200km2 and is largely under explored (see Figures 1 and 2).
- The Dakuniba prospect within Viani has been previously sampled where epithermal gold mineralisation has been recorded in outcrop samples over a >3km strike length.
- Multiple epithermal veins within the Dakuniba prospect area, 5km by 1.5km surface gold-in- soil geochemical anomaly - the footprint of the epithermal mineralisation is comparable to other economically productive gold epithermal deposits globally.
- Previous drilling by Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 1997 focused on a small, shallow part of the overall system and intersected high grade epithermal gold mineralisation.
- (Hole MJFV-5 (see Figure 3) over 6 vein zones at 50 to 100m below surface with best results, 0.6m @ 27.6 g/t Au & 900 g/t Ag and 0.4m @ 11.7 g/t Au1 and remains open in all directions.
- The JICA drilling was limited to only 600m of strike-length of the 5km long gold-in-soil anomaly (>10ppb Au) supported by epithermal geochemistry i.e., Ag and As.
- Based on discovery knowledge from epithermal systems worldwide, it is apparent the historical drilling was an inadequate test of the Viani gold system.
Alice Queen’s Managing Director, Andrew Buxton said,
We are delighted the SPL1513 license has been renewed for a further three years and look forward to continuing to work alongside the Fiji Mineral Resources Department as we commence our next phase of exploration activities. The Viani Gold Project is a tremendous prospect which has demonstrated it has the potential to become a significant epithermal system. With the license now renewed and the Company fully funded for its Fiji exploration plans, Alice Queen will continue the systematic exploration of the Viani Gold Project with the Company having commenced planning for its upcoming exploration programs.
Viani
Figure 1. Fiji Project locations.
Figure 2. Location of the Dakuniba Prospect in relation with SPL1513.
The Viani project (SPL1513) covers an area greater than 200km2 on the Caukadrove Peninsula on the Pacific Rim of Fire, Vanua Levu, Fiji. It is well serviced from Savu Savu on Vanua Levu and is highly prospective for a high-grade LSE gold system (see ASX releases 2 December 2022, “VIANI UPDATE” and 6 March 2023, “ALICE QUEEN UPGRADES VIANI EPITHERMAL PROJECT”.
Following a renewal process for Viani (SPL1513) which the Company commenced earlier this year (including as announced in the Quarterly Activities Report released to ASX on 23 April 2024), MRD notified Alice Queen on Friday 19 July 2024 that the license had been renewed with effect from Wednesday 3 July 2024 for a further three years. The renewed license includes typical terms for a license of this nature, including minimum work program and expenditure requirements.
Whilst the greater project area remains under explored, extensive sampling, trenching and (historic) limited drilling of the Dakuniba prospect area has been previously completed.
Previous drilling by JICA in 1997 returned multiple epithermal gold intersections in shallow drilling. Hole MJFV-5 (see Figure 2) intersected 6 vein zones at 50 to 100m below surface (best results include 0.6m @ 27.6ppm Au & 900ppm Ag, 0.4m @ 11.7ppm Au & 4.3ppm Ag)1. The JICA drilling was limited to only 600m of strike-length of the 5km long gold-in-soil anomaly (>10ppb Au) supported by epithermal geochemistry i.e., Ag and As.
Further details in relation to upcoming exploration plans at Viani will be announced in due course.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Alice Queen Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
High-Tech Metals Investor Kit
- Corporate info
- Insights
- Growth strategies
- Upcoming projects